Mark Lajal and Norbert Gombos will clash against each other in the semifinal of the Zhangjiagang Challenger for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Saturday at 1:00 pm on CENTRE COURT. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Mark Lajal who should win in 3 sets.

As per the initial odds, Mark Lajal is the pick to win this match.
Mark Lajal -> 1.53
Norbert Gombos -> 2.4

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Prediction and head to head Mark Lajal vs. Norbert Gombos

There is no head to head record between Mark Lajal and Norbert Gombos since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.

Mark Lajal

Ranked no. 247, Lajal got to the semifinal after beating Philip Henning 4-6 7-5 7-6(5), Ryan Peniston 6-2 6-2 and Rio Noguchi 6-4 6-2.

In the quarter, Lajal had a good straight sets win against Noguchi (6-4 6-2). During the match, Lajal scored 63 points vs Noguchi’s 43. Mark was pretty aggressive to blast 25 winners.

Regarding the service games, Lajal scored 4 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Mark Lajal was pretty efficient on serve to win 89% (25/28) of his 1st serve and 67% (12/18) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Mark broke Noguchi 3 times after converting 38% of his break points (3/8).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Lajal has surrendered 1 set in this competition to win 55% of the points he played.

Lajal has a solid win-loss record in the last 4 years having won 60% of his matches (120-80). 16-11 on hard in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this event, Lajal has an aggregate81-43 win-loss record in the last 4 years on hard.

Mark’s best result of the current year was getting to the semifinal in the Shenzhen 1 Challenger.

The Estonian has an aggregate 23-20 win-loss record in 2024, 16-11 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Zhangjiagang Challenger

Mark has never competed in this tournament before.

Norbert Gombos

Ranked no. 584, Gombos reached the semifinal after defeating Qian Sun 6-2 7-6(4), Ye Cong Mo 6-3 6-4, Yibing Wu 7-5 5-7 6-1, Chak Lam Coleman Wong 6-2 7-6(3) and Dalibor Svrcina w/o.

In the quarter, Norbert defeated Svrcina (w/o). During the match Gombos and Svrcina scored the same amount of points (). However, the world no. 247 was stronger during the important points and that was the most significant difference in the match. The Slovakian was not very aggressive do strike just winners.

Talking about serving, Gombos couldn’t to score even 1 ace for the entire match and he was extremely consistent in conceding no double faults for the entire match. Norbert Gombos conceded no breaks for the entire match to put 0% of his first serves in, win 0% (/) of the points behind his 1st serve and 0% (/) on the 2nd serve.

Overall Performance in this tournament

Norbert started his run at this tournament from the qualifications. In the main draw, he has conceded 1 set in the tournament to win 55% of the points he played.

The Slovakian has an overall 18-16 win-loss record in 2024, 8-1 on hard (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Lajal	Gombos
Match played	3	4
Tot Set	7	9
Tot Games	69	92
Pts	230-188	329-267
Total Points	418	596
Winners	103	115
%Winners	45%	35%

Lajal played 3 matches while Gombos competed in 4 matches. Gombos started his run from the qualifications while Lajal had a direct access to the main draw. Both players lost a set in the event. Mark Lajal lost 1 set, while Norbert Gombos dropped 1 set. Lajal has played 2 set(s) less than Gombos (7 vs 9). Therefore, Lajal played 23 games less than Gombos. Lajal scored 103 winners (45% of the total points). On the other side, Norbert struck 115 winners (35%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Lajal	Gombos
Aces	22	30
Avg per match	7.3	7.5
1st in	121/196	155/279
%1st in	62%	56%
1st pts	103/121	115/155
%1st pts	85%	74%
2nd pts	40/75	67/124
%2nd pts	53%	54%

Lajal made 22 aces (7.3 per match). Gombos scored 30 aces (7.5 per match). Lajal won 85% points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 53% of the points. On the other side, Gombos won 74% 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	Lajal	Gombos
Won	10	17
Converted	10/26	17/37
% Converted	38%	46%
Conceded	7	25
Saved	4	17
% Saved	57%	68%
Times Broken	3	8

Mark broke his opponents 10 times with a 38% conversion rate. Mark lost his serve 3 times and he saved 57% of the break points that he conceded. Gombos broke his opponents 17 times with a 46% conversion rate. Gombos conceded his serve 8 times and he saved 68% of the break points that he conceded.

Lajal
	R1 Henning	R2 Peniston	1/4 Noguchi	Total
Score	4-6 7-5 7-65	6-2 6-2	6-4 6-2
Tot Set	3	2	2	7
Tot Games	35	16	18	69
pts	106-105	61-40	63-43	230-188
Total points	211	101	106	418
Winners	52	26	25	103
%Winners	49%	43%	40%	45%
SERVE
Aces	15	3	4	22
Double Faults	4	2	1	7
1st in	64/98	29/52	28/46	121/196
% 1st in	65%	56%	61%	62%
1st pts	52/64	26/29	25/28	103/121
% 1st pts	81%	90%	89%	85%
2nd pts	17/34	11/23	12/18	40/75
% 2nd pts	50%	48%	67%	53%
Breaks
Won	3	4	3	10
Converted	3/9	4/9	3/8	10/26
Converted %	33%	44%	38%	38%
Conceded	5	2	0	7
Saved	2/5	2/2	0/0	4
Saved %	40%	100%	–	47%
Times Broken	3	0	0	3

Gombos
	Q1 Sun	Q3 Cong	R1 Wu	R2 Lam Coleman Wong	1/4 Svrcina	Total
Score	6-2 7-64	6-3 6-4	7-5 5-7 6-1	6-2 7-63	w/o
Tot Set	2	2	3	2	–	9
Tot Games	21	19	31	21	–	92
pts	76-60	66-49	111-96	76-62	–	329-267
Total points	136	115	207	138	–	596
Winners	25	21	38	31	–	115
%Winners	33%	32%	34%	41%	–	35%
SERVE
Aces	6	10	7	7	–	30
Double Faults	2	1	5	1	–	9
1st in	36/64	27/51	52/95	40/69	–	155/279
% 1st in	56%	53%	55%	58%	–	56%
1st pts	25/36	21/27	38/52	31/40	–	115/155
% 1st pts	69%	78%	73%	78%	–	74%
2nd pts	13/28	17/24	19/43	18/29	–	67/124
% 2nd pts	46%	71%	44%	62%	–	54%
Breaks
Won	5	3	7	2	–	17
Converted	5/11	3/5	7/17	2/4	–	17/37
Converted %	45%	60%	41%	50%	–	46%
Conceded	6	3	10	6	–	25
Saved	3/6	2/3	6/10	6/6	–	17
Saved %	50%	67%	60%	100%	–	92%
Times Broken	3	1	4	0	–	8

Tennis Scores in Zhangjiagang Challenger

• Seong Chan HongChan Hong – Fajing SunSun (5-7 6-2 6-2) – See score progression
• Mark LajalLajal – Rio NoguchiNoguchi (6-4 6-2) – See score progression
• Yasutaka UchiyamaUchiyama – Tung-Lin WuWu (6-7⁵ 6-3 6-4) – See score progression
• Francis Casey Alcantara/Pruchya IsarowCasey Alcantara/Pruchya Isarow – Ajeet Rai/Finn ReynoldsRai/Finn Reynolds (6-3 6-7⁷ 10-6) – See score progression
• Norbert GombosGombos – Dalibor SvrcinaSvrcina (w/o) – See score progression
• Kaichi Uchida/Takeru YuzukiUchida/Takeru Yuzuki – Toshihide Matsui/Kaito UesugiMatsui/Kaito Uesugi (7-5 6-7³ 11-9) – See score progression

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Yasutaka UchiyamaUchiyama – Seong Chan HongChan Hong (3-1) – H2H and prediction
• Norbert GombosGombos – (0-0) – H2H and prediction