Hikaru Shiraishi and Ryotaro Taguchi will face off in the qualifications of the Yokkaichi Challenger for the 3rd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Monday at 12:30 pm on SUB-CENTRE. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.
Prediction, odds and live streaming
The pick for Tennis Tonic is Ryotaro Taguchi who should win in 3 sets.
Ryotaro Taguchi -> 1.86
Hikaru Shiraishi -> 1.86
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Prediction and head to head Hikaru Shiraishi vs. Ryotaro Taguchi
This will be the 3rd time that Hikaru Shiraishi and Ryotaro Taguchi play each other. The head to head is 1-1 for Shiraishi and Taguchi (see full H2H stats),but they are 1-1 on hard.
The last time that they squared off, Shiraishi won 6-2 4-6 6-4 in the semifinal in Tokyo back in March 2024.
Hikaru Shiraishi
23 - 17win/loss
463
463
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 23-17 | 21-13 | 1-1 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 52-22 | 50-21 | 2-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 18-6 | 18-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 463 (career-high), the Japanese got to the qualifications after beating Hayato Matsuoka 7-6(6) 3-6 6-4.
In the qualifications, The Japanese defeated Matsuoka (7-66 3-6 6-4).During the match, Shiraishi scored less points (2) than Matsuoka. In fact, the world no. 463 won 104 points vs Matsuoka’s. That means that Shiraishi was more focused during the important points. Hikaru was exceptionally aggressive to blast 29 winners.
Talking about the service games, Shiraishi scored just 1 ace during the encounter and he committed only 2 double faults. Hikaru Shiraishi lost the serve 5 times and he saved 2 break points. Furthermore, Shiraishi put 57% of his first serves in, winning 55% (29/53) of the points behind his 1st serve and 55% (22/40) on the 2nd serve. The Japanese broke Matsuoka 5 times after converting 42% of his break points (5/12).
Shiraishi has a solid match record in the last 5 years having won 67% of his matches (93-45). 21-13 on hard in 2024. In connection with his performance on the same surface of this competition, Shiraishi has an aggregate89-39 win-loss record in the last 5 years on hard.
Hikaru’s best result of the year was reaching the final in Tokyo and M15 Tsukuba.
Shiraishi has an overall 23-17 win-loss record in 2024, 21-13 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Yokkaichi Challenger
Ryotaro Taguchi
40 - 20win/loss
545
545
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 40-20 | 38-18 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 39-18 | 39-18 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 5-2 | 5-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 545 (career-high), Taguchi reached the qualifications after defeating Shion Motoyama 6-1 6-2.
In the qualifications, The Japanese had a good straight sets win against Motoyama (6-1 6-2). During the match Taguchi scored 58 points vs Motoyama’s 27. The Japanese was pretty aggressive to blast 21 winners.
Talking about serving, Taguchi was unable to score even 1 ace for the entire match and he committed only 1 double fault for the entire match. Ryotaro Taguchi was pretty efficient on serve to win 81% (21/26) of his 1st serve and 76% (13/17) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Ryotaro broke Motoyama 4 times after converting 50% of his break points (4/8).
Ryotaro’s best result of the current season was getting to the semifinal in M15 Hinode,Tokyo,M15 Kashiwa,M25 Tianjin,M25 Taipei and M25 Huzhou.
Ryotaro has an overall 40-20 win-loss record in 2024, 38-18 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Yokkaichi Challenger
Taguchi has never competed in this tournament before.
H2H Performance in the tournament
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Shiraishi | Taguchi |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 1 | 1 |
| Tot Set | 3 | 2 |
| Tot Games | 32 | 15 |
| Pts | 104-106 | 58-27 |
| Total Points | 210 | 85 |
| Winners | 29 | 21 |
| %Winners | 28% | 36% |
Both Shiraishi and Taguchi played 1 match. Also both players started their run from the qualifications.At the moment, Hikaru Shiraishi lost 1 set while Ryotaro Taguchi hasn’t conceded a set so far. Shiraishi has played 1 set more than Taguchi (3 vs 2). Therefore, Shiraishi played 17 games more than Taguchi. Shiraishi scored 29 winners (28% of the total points). On the other side, Ryotaro made 21 winners (36%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Shiraishi | Taguchi |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 1 | 0 |
| Avg per match | 1 | 0 |
| 1st in | 53/93 | 26/43 |
| %1st in | 57% | 60% |
| 1st pts | 29/53 | 21/26 |
| %1st pts | 55% | 81% |
| 2nd pts | 22/40 | 13/17 |
| %2nd pts | 55% | 76% |
Shiraishi fired 1 ace . Taguchi didn’t manage to fire a single ace to far. Shiraishi won 55% points on his first serve. He quite strong on his second serve to win 55% of the points. On the other side, Taguchi won 81% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 76% of the points.
How they played the important points
| Breaks | Shiraishi | Taguchi |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 5 | 4 |
| Converted | 5/12 | 4/8 |
| % Converted | 42% | 50% |
| Conceded | 7 | 2 |
| Saved | 2 | 2 |
| % Saved | 29% | 100% |
| Times Broken | 5 | 0 |
The Japanese broke his opponent 5 times with a 42% conversion rate. Hikaru dropped his serve 5 times and he saved 29% of the break points that he conceded. The Japanese broke his opponent 4 times with a 50% conversion rate. Taguchi was rock solid on his serve as he has never conceded a single service game after saving 2 break points.
| Shiraishi | |||
| Q1 Matsuoka | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 7-66 3-6 6-4 | ||
| Tot Set | 3 | 3 | |
| Tot Games | 32 | 32 | |
| pts | 104-106 | 104-106 | |
| Total points | 210 | 210 | |
| Winners | 29 | 29 | |
| %Winners | 28% | 28% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 1 | 1 | |
| Double Faults | 2 | 2 | |
| 1st in | 53/93 | 53/93 | |
| % 1st in | 57% | 57% | |
| 1st pts | 29/53 | 29/53 | |
| % 1st pts | 55% | 55% | |
| 2nd pts | 22/40 | 22/40 | |
| % 2nd pts | 55% | 55% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 5 | 5 | |
| Converted | 5/12 | 5/12 | |
| Converted % | 42% | 42% | |
| Conceded | 7 | 7 | |
| Saved | 2/7 | 2 | |
| Saved % | 29% | 29% | |
| Times Broken | 5 | 5 | |
| Taguchi | |||
| Q1 Motoyama | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-1 6-2 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 15 | 15 | |
| pts | 58-27 | 58-27 | |
| Total points | 85 | 85 | |
| Winners | 21 | 21 | |
| %Winners | 36% | 36% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 0 | 0 | |
| Double Faults | 1 | 1 | |
| 1st in | 26/43 | 26/43 | |
| % 1st in | 60% | 60% | |
| 1st pts | 21/26 | 21/26 | |
| % 1st pts | 81% | 81% | |
| 2nd pts | 13/17 | 13/17 | |
| % 2nd pts | 76% | 76% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 4 | 4 | |
| Converted | 4/8 | 4/8 | |
| Converted % | 50% | 50% | |
| Conceded | 2 | 2 | |
| Saved | 2/2 | 2 | |
| Saved % | 100% | 100% | |
| Times Broken | 0 | 0 | |
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- Kaichi UchidaUchida – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
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- Elias YmerYmer – Alexey ZakharovZakharov (0-0) – H2H and prediction
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- Tung-Lin WuWu – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Masamichi ImamuraImamura – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Yu Hsiou HsuHsiou Hsu – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Jakub PaulPaul – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Hikaru ShiraishiShiraishi – (1-1) – H2H and prediction
- Dane SweenySweeny – Naoki NakagawaNakagawa (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Philip HenningHenning – Takuya KumasakaKumasaka (0-0) – H2H and prediction