Mark Lajal and Rio Noguchi will clash against each other in the qualifications of the Chicago Challenger for the 2nd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Monday at 11:00 am on COURT 2. 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 Mark Lajal who should win in 2 sets.
Mark Lajal -> 1.3
Rio Noguchi -> 3.32
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Prediction and head to head Mark Lajal vs. Rio Noguchi
This will be the 2nd time that Mark Lajal and Rio Noguchi square off. The head to head is 1-0 for Noguchi (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on hard.
The last time that they fought against each other, Noguchi won 3-6 7-5 6-3 in the 1st round in the Granby Challenger back in July 2024.
Mark Lajal
18 - 18win/loss
246
191
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 18-18 | 11-9 | 0-3 | 2-3 | 5-3 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 46-29 | 25-16 | 5-2 | 16-11 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 46-24 | 35-12 | 2-6 | 9-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 5-7 | 5-4 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 246, Mark got to the qualifications after defeating Bruno Kuzuhara 6-3 7-6(1).
In the qualifications, Mark had a good straight sets win against Kuzuhara (6-3 7-61). During the match, Lajal scored 76 points vs Kuzuhara’s 54. Mark was extremely aggressive to blast 28 winners.
Regarding the service games, Lajal bagged 6 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Overall, Mark Lajal was quite efficient on serve to win 78% (28/36) of his 1st serve and 79% (15/19) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Mark broke Kuzuhara 3 times after converting 30% of his break points (3/10).
Lajal has a solid win-loss record in the last 4 years having won 60% of his matches (115-78). 11-9 on hard in 2024. Regarding his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Lajal has a composed76-41 match record in the last 4 years on hard.
Mark’s best result of the season was getting to the semifinal in the Shenzhen 1 Challenger.
The Estonian has a composed 18-18 win-loss record in 2024, 11-9 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Chicago Challenger
Rio Noguchi
26 - 19win/loss
335
201
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 26-19 | 21-12 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 4-3 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 19-31 | 12-18 | 2-7 | 2-2 | 3-4 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 54-22 | 41-10 | 9-9 | 0-1 | 4-2 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 25-26 | 18-18 | 7-8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 14-12 | 5-6 | 0-3 | 3-2 | 6-1 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 335, the Japanese reached the qualifications after defeating Kaichi Uchida 6-0 6-1.
In the qualifications, Rio had a good straight sets win against Uchida (6-0 6-1). During the match Noguchi scored 62 points vs Uchida’s 34. The Japanese was quite aggressive to blast 26 winners.
Talking about serving, Noguchi wasn’t able to score even 1 ace for the entire match and he was extremely solid in conceding no double faults for the entire match. Rio Noguchi was extremely effective on serve to win 72% (26/36) of his 1st serve and 58% (11/19) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. The Japanese broke Uchida 5 times after converting 56% of his break points (5/9).
Rio’s best result of the season was getting to the final in M25 Swan Hill.
Rio has an overall 26-19 win-loss record in 2024, 21-12 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Chicago Challenger
The Japanese has never competed in this tournament before.
H2H Performance in the tournament
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Lajal | Noguchi |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 1 | 1 |
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 |
| Tot Games | 22 | 13 |
| Pts | 76-54 | 62-34 |
| Total Points | 130 | 96 |
| Winners | 28 | 26 |
| %Winners | 37% | 42% |
Both Lajal and Noguchi played 1 match. Also both players started their run from the qualifications.Both players have not lost a single set in this event so far. Talking about their workload, Lajal and Noguchi have played the same amount of sets 2. However, Lajal played 9 games more than Noguchi. Lajal scored 28 winners (37% of the total points). On the other side, The Japanese scored 26 winners (42%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Lajal | Noguchi |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 6 | 0 |
| Avg per match | 6 | 0 |
| 1st in | 36/55 | 36/55 |
| %1st in | 65% | 65% |
| 1st pts | 28/36 | 26/36 |
| %1st pts | 78% | 72% |
| 2nd pts | 15/19 | 11/19 |
| %2nd pts | 79% | 58% |
Lajal fired 6 aces . Noguchi didn’t manage to fire a single ace to far. Lajal won 78% points on his first serve. He extremely effective on his second serve to win 79% of the points. On the other side, Noguchi won 72% of the points behind 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 | Lajal | Noguchi |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 3 | 5 |
| Converted | 3/10 | 5/9 |
| % Converted | 30% | 56% |
| Conceded | 5 | 5 |
| Saved | 4 | 5 |
| % Saved | 80% | 100% |
| Times Broken | 1 | 0 |
Lajal broke his opponent 3 times with a 30% conversion rate. The Estonian surrendered his serve once and he saved 80% of the break points that he conceded. Rio broke his opponent 5 times with a 56% conversion rate. Rio was rock solid on his serve as he has never conceded a single service game after saving 5 break points.
| Lajal | |||
| Q1 Kuzuhara | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-3 7-61 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 22 | 22 | |
| pts | 76-54 | 76-54 | |
| Total points | 130 | 130 | |
| Winners | 28 | 28 | |
| %Winners | 37% | 37% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 6 | 6 | |
| Double Faults | 1 | 1 | |
| 1st in | 36/55 | 36/55 | |
| % 1st in | 65% | 65% | |
| 1st pts | 28/36 | 28/36 | |
| % 1st pts | 78% | 78% | |
| 2nd pts | 15/19 | 15/19 | |
| % 2nd pts | 79% | 79% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 3 | 3 | |
| Converted | 3/10 | 3/10 | |
| Converted % | 30% | 30% | |
| Conceded | 5 | 5 | |
| Saved | 4/5 | 4 | |
| Saved % | 80% | 80% | |
| Times Broken | 1 | 1 | |
| Noguchi | |||
| Q1 Uchida | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-0 6-1 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 13 | 13 | |
| pts | 62-34 | 62-34 | |
| Total points | 96 | 96 | |
| Winners | 26 | 26 | |
| %Winners | 42% | 42% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 0 | 0 | |
| Double Faults | 0 | 0 | |
| 1st in | 36/55 | 36/55 | |
| % 1st in | 65% | 65% | |
| 1st pts | 26/36 | 26/36 | |
| % 1st pts | 72% | 72% | |
| 2nd pts | 11/19 | 11/19 | |
| % 2nd pts | 58% | 58% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 5 | 5 | |
| Converted | 5/9 | 5/9 | |
| Converted % | 56% | 56% | |
| Conceded | 5 | 5 | |
| Saved | 5/5 | 5 | |
| Saved % | 100% | 100% | |
| Times Broken | 0 | 0 | |
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