Luca Nardi and Sho Shimabukuro will play each other in the semifinal of the Kobe Challenger for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Saturday at 1:30 pm on CENTRAL COURT. In the following paragraphs, you can find the head to head analysis and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Luca Nardi who should win in 3 sets.

As per the initial odds, Luca Nardi is the pick to win this match.
Luca Nardi -> 1.63
Sho Shimabukuro -> 2.21

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Prediction and head to head Luca Nardi vs. Sho Shimabukuro

There is no head to head record between Luca Nardi and Sho Shimabukuro since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.

Luca Nardi

Ranked no. 128, Luca reached the semifinal after defeating Taisei Ichikawa 7-5 6-2, August Holmgren 6-3 3-6 7-5 and Marc Polmans 6-2 6-4.

In the quarter, Nardi had a good straight sets win against Polmans (6-2 6-4). During the match, Nardi scored 72 points vs Polmans’s 53. Nardi was extremely aggressive to blast 26 winners.

Regarding the service games, Nardi struck 5 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Luca Nardi was pretty efficient on serve to win 84% (26/31) of his 1st serve and 59% (13/22) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Nardi broke Polmans 3 times after converting 30% of his break points (3/10).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Luca has conceded 1 set in this event to conquer 55% of the points he played.

Nardi has a winning record in the last 6 years having won 57% of his matches (118-89). 11-9 on indoor hard courts in 2023. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this event, Nardi has an overall33-30 win-loss record in the last 6 years on indoor hard courts.

His best result of the year was winning the title the Porto Challenger where he defeated Joao Sousa in the final 5-7 6-4 6-1 and the Matsuyama Challenger where he overcame Taro Daniel in the final 3-6 6-4 6-2.

Nardi has a composed 38-32 win-loss record in 2023, 11-9 on indoor hard courts (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Kobe Challenger

The Italian has never competed in this tournament before.

Sho Shimabukuro

Ranked no. 155, the Japanese got to the semifinal after defeating Kaichi Uchida 6-1 7-6⁵, Seong Chan Hong 6-4 7-6⁴ and Shintaro Mochizuki 6-3 6-3.

In the quarter, Sho had a good straight sets win against Mochizuki (6-3 6-3). During the match Shimabukuro scored 67 points vs Mochizuki’s 49. Shimabukuro was pretty aggressive to blast 26 winners.

About the serving games, Shimabukuro recorded 3 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Overall, Sho Shimabukuro was exceptionally efficient on serve to win 74% (26/35) of his 1st serve and 52% (16/31) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Sho broke Mochizuki 4 times after converting 57% of his break points (4/7).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Japanese hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 55% of the points he played.

His best result of the current year was conquering the title the Nonthaburi 3 Challenger where he beat Arthur Cazaux in the final 6-2 7-5 and the Tunis Challenger where he beat Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the final 6-4 6-4.

Shimabukuro has an overall 42-25 win-loss record in 2023, 8-3 on indoor hard courts (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Kobe Challenger

Previously, his best result was reaching the 3^rd round in 2019. See his history.

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Nardi	Shimabukuro
Match played	3	3
Tot Set	7	6
Tot Games	68	61
Pts	237-191	230-186
Total Points	428	416
Winners	93	85
%Winners	39%	37%

Both Nardi and Shimabukuro played 3 matches. At the moment, Luca Nardi lost 1 set while Sho Shimabukuro hasn’t conceded a set so far. Nardi has played 1 set more than Shimabukuro (7 vs 6). Therefore, Nardi played 7 games more than Shimabukuro. Nardi scored 93 winners (39% of the total points). On the other side, The Japanese blasted 85 winners (37%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Nardi	Shimabukuro
Aces	14	13
Avg per match	4.7	4.3
1st in	121/195	118/216
%1st in	62%	55%
1st pts	93/121	85/118
%1st pts	77%	72%
2nd pts	47/74	57/98
%2nd pts	64%	58%

Nardi managed to score 14 aces (4.7 per match). Shimabukuro made 13 aces (4.3 per match). Nardi won 77% points behind his first serve. He very solid his second serve to win 64% of the points. On the other side, Shimabukuro won 72% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 58% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Nardi	Shimabukuro
Won	10	10
Converted	10/27	10/23
% Converted	37%	43%
Conceded	6	20
Saved	3	17
% Saved	50%	85%
Times Broken	3	3

The Italian broke his opponents 10 times with a 37% conversion rate. Nardi dropped his serve 3 times and he saved 50% of the break points that he conceded. Shimabukuro broke his opponents 10 times with a 43% conversion rate. The Japanese conceded his serve 3 times and he saved 85% of the break points that he conceded.

Nardi
	R1 Ichikawa	R2 Holmgren	1/4 Polmans	Total
Score	7-5 6-2	6-3 3-6 7-5	6-2 6-4
Tot Set	2	3	2	7
Tot Games	20	30	18	68
pts	65-52	100-86	72-53	237-191
Total points	117	186	125	428
Winners	28	39	26	93
%Winners	43%	39%	36%	39%
SERVE
Aces	5	4	5	14
Double Faults	2	2	3	7
1st in	37/57	53/85	31/53	121/195
% 1st in	65%	62%	58%	62%
1st pts	28/37	39/53	26/31	93/121
% 1st pts	76%	74%	84%	77%
2nd pts	12/20	22/32	13/22	47/74
% 2nd pts	60%	69%	59%	64%
Breaks
Won	4	3	3	10
Converted	4/7	3/10	3/10	10/27
Converted %	57%	30%	30%	37%
Conceded	2	4	0	6
Saved	1/2	2/4	0/0	3
Saved %	50%	50%	–	33%
Times Broken	1	2	0	3

Shimabukuro
	R1 Uchida	R2 Chan Hong	1/4 Mochizuki	Total
Score	6-1 7-65	6-4 7-64	6-3 6-3
Tot Set	2	2	2	6
Tot Games	20	23	18	61
pts	78-64	85-73	67-49	230-186
Total points	142	158	116	416
Winners	30	29	26	85
%Winners	38%	34%	39%	37%
SERVE
Aces	9	1	3	13
Double Faults	5	2	3	10
1st in	40/72	43/78	35/66	118/216
% 1st in	56%	55%	53%	55%
1st pts	30/40	29/43	26/35	85/118
% 1st pts	75%	67%	74%	72%
2nd pts	17/32	24/35	16/31	57/98
% 2nd pts	53%	69%	52%	58%
Breaks
Won	4	2	4	10
Converted	4/8	2/8	4/7	10/23
Converted %	50%	25%	57%	43%
Conceded	6	7	7	20
Saved	5/6	6/7	6/7	17
Saved %	83%	86%	86%	85%
Times Broken	1	1	1	3

Tennis Scores in Kobe Challenger

• Sho ShimabukuroShimabukuro – Shintaro MochizukiMochizuki (6-3 6-3) – See score progression
• Tung-Lin WuWu – Jason JungJung (6-4 6-3) – See score progression
• Duje AjdukovicAjdukovic – Jurij RodionovRodionov (7-6⁵ 4-6 6-1) – See score progression
• Luca NardiNardi – Marc PolmansPolmans (6-2 6-4) – See score progression
• Yunseong Chung/Ruben GonzalesChung/Ruben Gonzales – Purav Raja/Ramkumar RamanathanRaja/Ramkumar Ramanathan (7-6⁴ 3-6 11-9) – See score progression
• Ivan Sabanov/Matej SabanovSabanov/Matej Sabanov – Blake Ellis/Calum PuttergillEllis/Calum Puttergill (6-4 6-3) – See score progression
• Luca NardiNardi – Marc PolmansPolmans (6-2 6-4) – See score progression

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Duje AjdukovicAjdukovic – Tung-Lin WuWu (0-0) – H2H and prediction