Kei Nishikori and Mikhail Kukushkin will play each other in the 2^nd round of the Phoenix Challenger for the 11^th time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Thursday at 1:00 pm 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 Kei Nishikori who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Kei Nishikori is the pick to win this match.
Kei Nishikori -> 1.168
Mikhail Kukushkin -> 4.55

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Prediction and head to head Kei Nishikori vs. Mikhail Kukushkin

This will be the 11^th time that Kei Nishikori and Mikhail Kukushkin play each other. The head to head is 10-0 for Nishikori (see full H2H stats), 3-0 on hard.

The last time that they squared off, Nishikori won 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 in the 4^th round in at the Wimbledon back in 2019.

Kei Nishikori

Ranked no. 76, Kei reached the 2^nd round after defeating Luca Nardi 6-4 6-3.

In the 1^st round, Kei had a good straight sets win against Nardi (6-4 6-3). During the match, Nishikori scored 67 points vs Nardi’s 55. The Japanese was quite aggressive to blast 26 winners.

Talking about the service games, Nishikori scored just 1 ace during the encounter and he committed only 2 double faults. Kei Nishikori lost the serve 4 times and he saved 8 break points. Furthermore, Nishikori put 57% of his first serves in, winning 68% (26/38) of the points behind his 1st serve and 34% (10/29) on the 2nd serve. Nishikori broke Nardi 6 times after converting 86% of his break points (6/7).

Nishikori has a solid record in the last 10 years having won 68% of his matches (231-111). 7-4 on hard in 2025. Regarding his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Nishikori has a composed 107-52 record in the last years on hard.

Nishikori’s best result of the current season was reaching the final in Hong Kong.

Nishikori has a composed 8-6 win-loss record in 2025, 7-4 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Phoenix Challenger

The Japanese has never competed in this tournament before.

Mikhail Kukushkin

Ranked no. 166, Mikhail got to the 2^nd round after defeating Mitchell Krueger 5-7 7-6(2) 6-0, Bor Artnak 4-6 6-4 6-2 and Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-4 6-2.

In the 1^st round, Mikhail had a good straight sets win against Uchiyama (6-4 6-2). During the match Kukushkin scored 64 points vs Uchiyama’s 51. Kukushkin was exceptionally aggressive to blast 25 winners.

Talking about serving, Kukushkin made 2 aces and he was quite steady in conceding no double faults for the entire match. Mikhail Kukushkin lost the serve once and he saved 1 break points. Furthermore, Kukushkin put 69% of his first serves in, winning 66% (25/38) of the points behind his 1st serve and 65% (11/17) on the 2nd serve. Mikhail broke Uchiyama 4 times after converting 67% of his break points (4/6).

The Kazakhstani has an overall 10-9 win-loss record in 2025, 8-6 on hard (See FULL STATS)

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Previously in the Phoenix Challenger

Previously, his best result was reaching the final in 2019. See his history.

H2H Performance in the tournament

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Nishikori	Kukushkin
Match played	1	3
Tot Set	2	8
Tot Games	19	77
Pts	67-55	264-228
Total Points	122	492
Winners	26	113
%Winners	39%	43%

Nishikori played 1 match while Kukushkin competed in 3 matches. Kukushkin started his run from the qualifications while Nishikori had a direct access to the main draw. At the moment, Mikhail Kukushkin lost 2 sets while Kei Nishikori hasn’t dropped a set so far. Nishikori has played 6 set(s) less than Kukushkin (2 vs 8). Therefore, Nishikori played 58 games less than Kukushkin. Nishikori scored 26 winners (39% of the total points). On the other side, Kukushkin recorded 113 winners (43%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Nishikori	Kukushkin
Aces	1	9
Avg per match	1	3
1st in	38/67	171/239
%1st in	57%	72%
1st pts	26/38	113/171
%1st pts	68%	66%
2nd pts	10/29	34/68
%2nd pts	34%	50%

Nishikori made 1 ace . Kukushkin also blasted 9 aces (3 per match). Nishikori won 68% points behind his first serve. He quite strong on his second serve to win 34% of the points. On the other side, Kukushkin won 66% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 50% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Nishikori	Kukushkin
Won	6	16
Converted	6/7	16/30
% Converted	86%	53%
Conceded	12	18
Saved	8	9
% Saved	67%	50%
Times Broken	4	9

Kei broke his opponent 6 times with a 86% conversion rate. Kei lost his serve 4 times and he saved 67% of the break points that he conceded. Kukushkin broke his opponents 16 times with a 53% conversion rate. The Kazakhstani conceded his serve 9 times and he saved 50% of the break points that he conceded.

Nishikori
	R1 Nardi	Total
Score	6-4 6-3
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	19	19
pts	67-55	67-55
Total points	122	122
Winners	26	26
%Winners	39%	39%
SERVE
Aces	1	1
Double Faults	2	2
1st in	38/67	38/67
% 1st in	57%	57%
1st pts	26/38	26/38
% 1st pts	68%	68%
2nd pts	10/29	10/29
% 2nd pts	34%	34%
Breaks
Won	6	6
Converted	6/7	6/7
Converted %	86%	86%
Conceded	12	12
Saved	8/12	8
Saved %	67%	67%
Times Broken	4	4

Kukushkin
	Q1 Krueger	Q3 Artnak	R1 Uchiyama	Total
Score	5-7 7-62 6-0	4-6 6-4 6-2	6-4 6-2
Tot Set	3	3	2	8
Tot Games	31	28	18	77
pts	100-86	100-91	64-51	264-228
Total points	186	191	115	492
Winners	46	42	25	113
%Winners	46%	42%	39%	43%
SERVE
Aces	4	3	2	9
Double Faults	4	3	0	7
1st in	65/93	68/91	38/55	171/239
% 1st in	70%	75%	69%	72%
1st pts	46/65	42/68	25/38	113/171
% 1st pts	71%	62%	66%	66%
2nd pts	13/28	10/23	11/17	34/68
% 2nd pts	46%	43%	65%	50%
Breaks
Won	6	6	4	16
Converted	6/12	6/12	4/6	16/30
Converted %	50%	50%	67%	53%
Conceded	8	8	2	18
Saved	4/8	4/8	1/2	9
Saved %	50%	50%	50%	150%
Times Broken	4	4	1	9

Tennis Scores in Phoenix Challenger

• Joao FonsecaFonseca – Pavel KotovKotov (6-2 6-4) – See score progression
• Corentin MoutetMoutet – Nikoloz BasilashviliBasilashvili (6-3 6-2) – See score progression
• Rinky HijikataHijikata – Brandon HoltHolt (7-6⁰ 7-6³) – See score progression
• Alexander BublikBublik – Aleksandar VukicVukic (6-3 3-6 6-3) – See score progression
• Hugo GastonGaston – Adam WaltonWalton (6-2 6-4) – See score progression
• Kei NishikoriNishikori – Luca NardiNardi (6-4 6-3) – See score progression
• Jacob FearnleyFearnley – James DuckworthDuckworth (7-6³ 6-3) – See score progression
• Eliot SpizzirriSpizzirri – Li TuTu (6-4 6-2) – See score progression
• Reilly OpelkaOpelka – Arthur RinderknechRinderknech (4-6 7-5 7-5) – See score progression
• Mikhail KukushkinKukushkin – Yasutaka UchiyamaUchiyama (6-4 6-2) – See score progression
• Roman SafiullinSafiullin – Christopher EubanksEubanks (7-6² 6-1) – See score progression
• Colton SmithSmith – Alexander ShevchenkoShevchenko (6-1 7-5) – See score progression
• Kei NishikoriNishikori – Luca NardiNardi (6-4 6-3) – See score progression

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Kei NishikoriNishikori – Mikhail KukushkinKukushkin (10-0) – H2H and prediction
• Pedro Martinez PorteroMartinez Portero – Corentin MoutetMoutet (2-0) – H2H and prediction
• Reilly OpelkaOpelka – Hugo GastonGaston (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Nuno BorgesBorges – Jacob FearnleyFearnley (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Rinky HijikataHijikata – Alexander BublikBublik (0-0) – H2H and prediction