Mattia Bellucci and Mikhail Kukushkin will square off in the quarter of the Cary Challenger for the 2^nd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Thursday at 3:00 pm on STADIUM. Here the head to head stats and relative prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Mattia Bellucci who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Mattia Bellucci is the pick to win this match.
Mattia Bellucci -> 1.4
Mikhail Kukushkin -> 2.8

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Prediction and head to head Mattia Bellucci vs. Mikhail Kukushkin

This will be the 2^nd time that Mattia Bellucci and Mikhail Kukushkin play each other. The head to head is 1-0 for Kukushkin (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on hard.

The last time that they fought against each other, Kukushkin won 6-4 7-6(4) in the qualifications in at the U.S. Open back in 2023.

Mattia Bellucci

Ranked no. 113 (career-high), Mattia got to the quarter after defeating Elias Ymer 7-5 7-5, Federico Agustin Gomez 6-4 6-2, Seong Chan Hong 6-4 6-2 and Nishesh Basavareddy 6-2 6-2.

In the 2^nd round, Mattia had a good straight sets win against Basavareddy (6-2 6-2). During the match, Bellucci scored 65 points vs Basavareddy’s 44. Mattia was exceptionally aggressive to blast 22 winners.

Regarding the service games, Bellucci fired 4 aces and he committed only 2 double faults. Mattia Bellucci lost the serve once and he saved 3 break points. Furthermore, Bellucci put 64% of his first serves in, winning 63% (22/35) of the points behind his 1st serve and 70% (14/20) on the 2nd serve. Bellucci broke Basavareddy 5 times after converting 45% of his break points (5/11).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Italian started his run at this tournament from the qualifications. In the main draw, he hasn’t surrendered yet a set in this event to conquer 56% of the points he played.

Bellucci has a solid win-loss record in the last 7 years having won 63% of his matches (215-124). 15-10 on hard in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this competition, Bellucci has a compiled117-54 win-loss record in the last 7 years on hard.

The Italian’s best result of the season was getting to the semifinal in the Nottingham 2 Challenger.

The Italian has an overall 31-23 win-loss record in 2024, 15-10 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Cary Challenger

The Italian has never competed in this tournament before.

Mikhail Kukushkin

Ranked no. 121, Kukushkin reached the quarter after beating Cooper Williams 5-7 6-4 6-4 and Aslan Karatsev 7-6(2) 3-6 6-1.

In the 2^nd round, Mikhail defeated Karatsev (7-6² 3-6 6-1). During the match Kukushkin scored 105 points vs Karatsev’s 97. The Kazakhstani was pretty aggressive to blast 49 winners.

About the serving games, Kukushkin scored 4 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Overall, Mikhail Kukushkin was exceptionally efficient on serve to win 75% (49/65) of his 1st serve and 53% (18/34) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Kukushkin broke Karatsev twice after converting 20% of his break points (2/10).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Mikhail has conceded 2 set in the tournament to win 52% of the points he played.

His best result of the season was conquering the title the Manama Challenger where he defeated Richard Gasquet in the final 7-6(5) 6-4 and the Tenerife 3 Challenger where he overcame Matteo Gigante in the final 6-2 2-0 ret..

The Kazakhstani has an overall 42-21 win-loss record in 2024, 19-4 on hard (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Bellucci	Kukushkin
Match played	4	2
Tot Set	8	6
Tot Games	76	61
Pts	292-228	200-185
Total Points	520	385
Winners	109	94
%Winners	37%	47%

Bellucci played 4 matches while Kukushkin competed in 2 matches. Bellucci started his run from the qualifications while Kukushkin had a direct access to the main draw. At the moment, Mikhail Kukushkin conceded 2 sets while Mattia Bellucci hasn’t lost a set so far. Bellucci has played 2 sets more than Kukushkin (8 vs 6). Therefore, Bellucci played 15 games more than Kukushkin. Bellucci scored 109 winners (37% of the total points). On the other side, Kukushkin struck 94 winners (47%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Bellucci	Kukushkin
Aces	21	7
Avg per match	5.3	3.5
1st in	155/252	128/189
%1st in	62%	68%
1st pts	109/155	94/128
%1st pts	70%	73%
2nd pts	53/97	33/61
%2nd pts	55%	54%

Bellucci blasted 21 aces (5.3 per match). Kukushkin managed to score 7 aces (3.5 per match). Bellucci won 70% points behind his first serve. He pretty solid on his second serve to win 55% of the points. On the other side, Kukushkin won 73% of the points on 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	Bellucci	Kukushkin
Won	17	6
Converted	17/46	6/16
% Converted	37%	38%
Conceded	17	10
Saved	12	6
% Saved	71%	60%
Times Broken	5	4

Bellucci broke his opponents 17 times with a 37% conversion rate. The Italian surrendered his serve 5 times and he saved 71% of the break points that he conceded. Mikhail broke his opponents 6 times with a 38% conversion rate. Kukushkin conceded his serve 4 times and he saved 60% of the break points that he conceded.

Bellucci
	Q1 Ymer	Q3 Agustin	R1 Chan Hong	R2 Basavareddy	Total
Score	7-5 7-5	6-4 6-2	6-4 6-2	6-2 6-2
Tot Set	2	2	2	2	8
Tot Games	24	18	18	16	76
pts	84-76	73-58	70-50	65-44	292-228
Total points	160	131	120	109	520
Winners	26	32	29	22	109
%Winners	31%	44%	41%	34%	37%
SERVE
Aces	6	4	7	4	21
Double Faults	3	4	3	2	12
1st in	39/73	46/67	35/57	35/55	155/252
% 1st in	53%	69%	61%	64%	62%
1st pts	26/39	32/46	29/35	22/35	109/155
% 1st pts	67%	70%	83%	63%	70%
2nd pts	17/34	10/21	12/22	14/20	53/97
% 2nd pts	50%	48%	55%	70%	55%
Breaks
Won	5	4	3	5	17
Converted	5/11	4/13	3/11	5/11	17/46
Converted %	45%	31%	27%	45%	37%
Conceded	7	5	1	4	17
Saved	4/7	4/5	1/1	3/4	12
Saved %	57%	80%	100%	75%	78%
Times Broken	3	1	0	1	5

Kukushkin
	R1 Williams	R2 Karatsev	Total
Score	5-7 6-4 6-4	7-62 3-6 6-1
Tot Set	3	3	6
Tot Games	32	29	61
pts	95-88	105-97	200-185
Total points	183	202	385
Winners	45	49	94
%Winners	47%	47%	47%
SERVE
Aces	3	4	7
Double Faults	1	3	4
1st in	63/90	65/99	128/189
% 1st in	70%	66%	68%
1st pts	45/63	49/65	94/128
% 1st pts	71%	75%	73%
2nd pts	15/27	18/34	33/61
% 2nd pts	56%	53%	54%
Breaks
Won	4	2	6
Converted	4/6	2/10	6/16
Converted %	67%	20%	38%
Conceded	4	6	10
Saved	1/4	5/6	6
Saved %	25%	83%	27%
Times Broken	3	1	4

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Mikhail KukushkinKukushkin – (1-0) – H2H and prediction
• David GoffinGoffin – Otto VirtanenVirtanen (2-0) – H2H and prediction
• Roman SafiullinSafiullin – Christopher EubanksEubanks (1-0) – H2H and prediction
• Gabriel DialloDiallo – Tristan BoyerBoyer (1-0) – H2H and prediction