Dmitry Popko and Cezar Cretu will play each other in the 2nd round of the Iasi Challenger for the 1st time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Thursday at 6:30 pm on CENTER COURT. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.
Prediction, odds and live streaming
The pick for Tennis Tonic is Dmitry Popko who should win in 3 sets.
As per the initial odds, Dmitry Popko is the pick to win this match.
Dmitry Popko -> 1.727
Cezar Cretu -> 2.03
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Prediction and head to head Dmitry Popko vs. Cezar Cretu
There is no head to head record between Dmitry Popko and Cezar Cretu since this will be the first time that they will clash against each other in the main tour.
Dmitry Popko
56 - 18win/loss
176
162
LLLLWWLWLL | Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 64-33 | 7-2 | 57-28 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 40-20 | 1-1 | 38-18 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 18-30 | 11-11 | 7-18 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 34-34 | 0-4 | 27-19 | 7-10 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 28-23 | 13-8 | 15-10 | 0-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 222, Dmitry got to the 2nd round after defeating Murkel Alejandro Dellien Velasco 6-4 6-2 and Cezar Cretu .
In the 1st round, The Kazakhstani had a good straight sets win against Alejandro Dellien Velasco (6-4 6-2). During the match, Popko scored 58 points vs Alejandro Dellien Velasco’s 44. Popko was quite aggressive to blast 28 winners.
Talking about the service games, Popko blasted 5 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Dmitry Popko was quite effective on serve to win 82% (28/34) of his 1st serve and 58% (14/24) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Popko broke Alejandro Dellien Velasco 3 times after converting 43% of his break points (3/7).
Popko has a solid record in the last 10 years having won 64% of his matches (424-236). 51-18 on clay in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Popko has a compiled 288-139 record in the last years on clay.
Popko’s best result of the year was getting to the final in the Buenos Aires Challenger,M15 Sunrise,M15 Palm Coast,M25 Naples,M25 Recife,M25 Feira de Santana and the Brasov Challenger.
Popko has a compiled 56-18 win-loss record in 2024, 51-18 on clay (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Iasi Challenger
Popko has never competed in this tournament before.
Cezar Cretu
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| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 49-23 | 4-4 | 43-19 | 2-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 55-22 | 13-9 | 42-13 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 60-26 | 0-0 | 60-26 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 41-19 | 0-3 | 41-16 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 21-9 | 14-5 | 7-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 376, the Romanian reached the 2nd round after defeating Roman Andres Burruchaga 6-4 6-3.
In the 1st round, The Romanian had a good straight sets win against Andres Burruchaga (6-4 6-3). During the match Cretu scored 70 points vs Andres Burruchaga’s 57. Cezar was extremely aggressive to blast 20 winners.
About the serving games, Cretu was unable to score even 1 ace for the entire match and he committed only 1 double fault for the entire match. Cezar Cretu lost the serve 3 times and he saved 1 break points. Furthermore, Cretu put 54% of his first serves in, winning 65% (20/31) of the points behind his 1st serve and 54% (14/26) on the 2nd serve. Cretu broke Andres Burruchaga 5 times after converting 33% of his break points (5/15).
Cretu’s best result of the current year was reaching the final in M15 Antalya,M15 Oradea and M25 Satu Mare.
The Romanian has a composed 32-13 win-loss record in 2024, 32-13 on clay (See FULL STATS).
H2H Performance in the tournament
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Popko | Cretu |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 1 | 1 |
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 |
| Tot Games | 18 | 19 |
| Pts | 58-44 | 70-57 |
| Total Points | 102 | 127 |
| Winners | 28 | 20 |
| %Winners | 48% | 29% |
Both Popko and Cretu played 1 match. Both players have not surrendered a single set in this event so far. Talking about their workload, Popko and Cretu have played the same amount of sets 2. However, Popko played 1 game less than Cretu. Dmitry scored 28 winners (48% of the total points). On the other side, Cretu made 20 winners (29%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Popko | Cretu |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 5 | 0 |
| Avg per match | 5 | 0 |
| 1st in | 34/58 | 31/57 |
| %1st in | 59% | 54% |
| 1st pts | 28/34 | 20/31 |
| %1st pts | 82% | 65% |
| 2nd pts | 14/24 | 14/26 |
| %2nd pts | 58% | 54% |
Popko made 5 aces . Cretu didn’t manage to fire a single ace to far. Popko won 82% points on his first serve. He quite strong on his second serve to win 58% of the points. On the other side, Cretu won 65% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 54% of the points.
How they played the important points
| Breaks | Popko | Cretu |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 3 | 5 |
| Converted | 3/7 | 5/15 |
| % Converted | 43% | 33% |
| Conceded | 5 | 4 |
| Saved | 5 | 1 |
| % Saved | 100% | 25% |
| Times Broken | 0 | 3 |
Popko broke his opponent 3 times with a 43% conversion rate. The Kazakhstani pretty solid on his serve as he has never dropped a single service game after saving 5 break points. Cretu broke his opponent 5 times with a 33% conversion rate. Cezar conceded his serve 3 times and he saved 25% of the break points that he conceded.
| Popko | |||
| R1 Alejandro Dellien Velasco |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-4 6-2 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 18 | 18 | |
| pts | 58-44 | 58-44 | |
| Total points | 102 | 102 | |
| Winners | 28 | 28 | |
| %Winners | 48% | 48% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 5 | 5 | |
| Double Faults | 1 | 1 | |
| 1st in | 34/58 | 34/58 | |
| % 1st in | 59% | 59% | |
| 1st pts | 28/34 | 28/34 | |
| % 1st pts | 82% | 82% | |
| 2nd pts | 14/24 | 14/24 | |
| % 2nd pts | 58% | 58% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 3 | 3 | |
| Converted | 3/7 | 3/7 | |
| Converted % | 43% | 43% | |
| Conceded | 5 | 5 | |
| Saved | 5/5 | 5 | |
| Saved % | 100% | 100% | |
| Times Broken | 0 | 0 | |
| Cretu | |||
| R1 Andres |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-4 6-3 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 19 | 19 | |
| pts | 70-57 | 70-57 | |
| Total points | 127 | 127 | |
| Winners | 20 | 20 | |
| %Winners | 29% | 29% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 0 | 0 | |
| Double Faults | 1 | 1 | |
| 1st in | 31/57 | 31/57 | |
| % 1st in | 54% | 54% | |
| 1st pts | 20/31 | 20/31 | |
| % 1st pts | 65% | 65% | |
| 2nd pts | 14/26 | 14/26 | |
| % 2nd pts | 54% | 54% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 5 | 5 | |
| Converted | 5/15 | 5/15 | |
| Converted % | 33% | 33% | |
| Conceded | 4 | 4 | |
| Saved | 1/4 | 1 | |
| Saved % | 25% | 25% | |
| Times Broken | 3 | 3 | |
Head 2 Head
LLLLWWLWLL
WWLWLWLLWW Tennis Scores in Iasi Challenger
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- Hugo DellienDellien – Abedallah ShelbayhShelbayh (6-4 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
Upcoming matches in the draw
- Dmitry PopkoPopko – Cezar Cretu (ROU)Cretu (ROU) (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Enzo CouacaudCouacaud – Dalibor SvrcinaSvrcina (1-0) – H2H and prediction
- Javier Barranco CosanoBarranco Cosano – Juan Pablo FicovichPablo Ficovich (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Camilo Ugo CarabelliUgo Carabelli – Valentin RoyerRoyer (1-0) – H2H and prediction
- Juan Manuel CerundoloManuel Cerundolo – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
