Alafia Ayeni and Maxim Zhukov will face off in the qualifications of the Istanbul Challenger for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Monday at 10:00 am on CENTER 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 Alafia Ayeni who should win in 3 sets.

As per the initial odds, Alafia Ayeni is the pick to win this match.
Alafia Ayeni -> 1.46
Maxim Zhukov -> 2.59

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Prediction and head to head Alafia Ayeni vs. Maxim Zhukov

There is no head to head record between Alafia Ayeni and Maxim Zhukov since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.

Alafia Ayeni

Ranked no. 451, Alafia got to the qualifications after beating Cemil Duran 6-2 6-2.

In the qualifications, Alafia had a good straight sets win against Duran (6-2 6-2). During the match, Ayeni scored 60 points vs Duran’s 43. Ayeni was quite aggressive to blast 21 winners.

Regarding the service games, Ayeni made 2 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Alafia Ayeni lost the serve once and he saved 3 break points. Furthermore, Ayeni put 69% of his first serves in, winning 64% (21/33) of the points behind his 1st serve and 67% (10/15) on the 2nd serve. Alafia broke Duran 5 times after converting 56% of his break points (5/9).

Ayeni has a winning record in the last 9 years having won 52% of his matches (167-153). 19-16 on hard in 2024. Regarding his performance on the same surface of this event, Ayeni has a composed108-99 record in the last 9 years on hard.

Ayeni’s best result of the year was getting to the final in M15 San Diego and M25 Astana.

Ayeni has an aggregate 25-24 win-loss record in 2024, 19-16 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Istanbul Challenger

Ayeni has never competed in this tournament before.

Maxim Zhukov

Ranked no. 748 (career-high), Zhukov got to the qualifications after beating Kimmer Coppejans 6-4 6-3.

In the qualifications, The Russian had a good straight sets win against Coppejans (6-4 6-3). During the match Zhukov scored 59 points vs Coppejans’s 50. The Russian was extremely aggressive to blast 20 winners.

Talking about serving, Zhukov managed to score 6 aces and he committed only 4 double faults. Maxim Zhukov lost the serve 4 times and he saved 3 break points. Furthermore, Zhukov put 55% of his first serves in, winning 63% (20/32) of the points behind his 1st serve and 42% (11/26) on the 2nd serve. The Russian broke Coppejans 6 times after converting 60% of his break points (6/10).

Maxim’s best result of the current season was getting to the semifinal in Kamenogorsk.

The Russian has a composed 28-20 win-loss record in 2024, 15-11 on hard (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Ayeni	Zhukov
Match played	1	1
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	16	19
Pts	60-43	59-50
Total Points	103	109
Winners	21	20
%Winners	35%	34%

Both Ayeni and Zhukov played 1 match. Also both players started their run from the qualifications.Both players have not conceded a single set in this event so far. Talking about their workload, Ayeni and Zhukov have played the same amount of sets 2. However, Ayeni played 3 games less than Zhukov. The American scored 21 winners (35% of the total points). On the other side, Zhukov scored 20 winners (34%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Ayeni	Zhukov
Aces	2	6
Avg per match	2	6
1st in	33/48	32/58
%1st in	69%	55%
1st pts	21/33	20/32
%1st pts	64%	63%
2nd pts	10/15	11/26
%2nd pts	67%	42%

Ayeni scored 2 aces . Zhukov made 6 aces . Ayeni won 64% points behind his first serve. He pretty effective on his second serve to win 67% of the points. On the other side, Zhukov won 63% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 42% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Ayeni	Zhukov
Won	5	6
Converted	5/9	6/10
% Converted	56%	60%
Conceded	4	7
Saved	3	3
% Saved	75%	43%
Times Broken	1	4

Ayeni broke his opponent 5 times with a 56% conversion rate. The American surrendered his serve once and he saved 75% of the break points that he conceded. Maxim broke his opponent 6 times with a 60% conversion rate. Zhukov conceded his serve 4 times and he saved 43% of the break points that he conceded.

Ayeni
	Q1 Duran	Total
Score	6-2 6-2
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	16	16
pts	60-43	60-43
Total points	103	103
Winners	21	21
%Winners	35%	35%
SERVE
Aces	2	2
Double Faults	1	1
1st in	33/48	33/48
% 1st in	69%	69%
1st pts	21/33	21/33
% 1st pts	64%	64%
2nd pts	10/15	10/15
% 2nd pts	67%	67%
Breaks
Won	5	5
Converted	5/9	5/9
Converted %	56%	56%
Conceded	4	4
Saved	3/4	3
Saved %	75%	75%
Times Broken	1	1

Zhukov
	Q1 Coppejans	Total
Score	6-4 6-3
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	19	19
pts	59-50	59-50
Total points	109	109
Winners	20	20
%Winners	34%	34%
SERVE
Aces	6	6
Double Faults	4	4
1st in	32/58	32/58
% 1st in	55%	55%
1st pts	20/32	20/32
% 1st pts	63%	63%
2nd pts	11/26	11/26
% 2nd pts	42%	42%
Breaks
Won	6	6
Converted	6/10	6/10
Converted %	60%	60%
Conceded	7	7
Saved	3/7	3
Saved %	43%	43%
Times Broken	4	4

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