Sho Shimabukuro and Rio Noguchi will fight against each other in the 1^st round of the Gwangju Challenger for the 3^rd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Wednesday at 11:00 am on COURT 8. 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 Rio Noguchi who should win in 3 sets.

As per the initial odds, Rio Noguchi is the pick to win this match.
Rio Noguchi -> 1.72
Sho Shimabukuro -> 2.03

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Prediction and head to head Sho Shimabukuro vs. Rio Noguchi

This will be the 3^rd time that Sho Shimabukuro and Rio Noguchi fight against each other. The head to head is 2-0 for Noguchi (see full H2H stats), 2-0 on hard.

The last time that they squared off, Noguchi won 6-4 6-4 in the 1^st round in M15 Sharm El Sheikh back in 2021.

Sho Shimabukuro

Ranked no. 188, Shimabukuro will start his run in the Gwangju Challenger after he played his last match in the Busan Challenger where he lost 6-3 6-1 to Shimizu in the 1^st round on the 15^th of April.

Shimabukuro has an overall 2-7 win-loss record in 2025, 2-7 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Talking about his overall career, The Japanese has an overall 243-153 record. He has a positive 180-110 record on hard.

Previously in the Gwangju Challenger

Previously, his best result was reaching the quarter in 2024. See his history.

Rio Noguchi

Ranked no. 254, the Japanese reached the 1^st round after beating Mats Rosenkranz 6-4 7-6(9) and Kasidit Samrej 6-4 6-4.

In the qualifications, Rio had a good straight sets win against Samrej (6-4 6-4). During the match Noguchi scored 71 points vs Samrej’s 60. Noguchi was very aggressive to blast 30 winners.

About the serving games, Noguchi made 6 aces and he committed only 1 double fault for the entire match. Rio Noguchi was very effective on serve to win 77% (30/39) of his 1st serve and 59% (13/22) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Noguchi broke Samrej twice after converting 67% of his break points (2/3).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Japanese started his run at this tournament from the qualifications. In the main draw, he hasn’t surrendered yet a set in this competition to conquer 52% of the points he played.

His best result of the year was winning the title the Nonthaburi 2 Challenger where he overcame Jie Cui in the final 7-6(9) 6-2.

Noguchi has an overall 16-9 win-loss record in 2025, 16-9 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Gwangju Challenger

Previously, his best result was reaching the 1^st round in 2019. See his history.

Tennis Scores in Gwangju Challenger

• Hyeon ChungChung – Constant LestienneLestienne (6-1 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Tristan SchoolkateSchoolkate – Rei SakamotoSakamoto (7-6⁴ 7-5) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Johannus MondayMonday – Zachary SvajdaSvajda (6-2 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Jason Murray KublerMurray Kubler – Soon-Woo KwonKwon (2-0) – H2H and prediction
• Antoine EscoffierEscoffier – Christopher EubanksEubanks (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Kaichi UchidaUchida – Yasutaka UchiyamaUchiyama (2-0) – H2H and prediction
• Hugo GrenierGrenier – Li TuTu (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Emil RuusuvuoriRuusuvuori – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Uisung ParkPark – Yunseong ChungChung (1-0) – H2H and prediction
• Yu Hsiou HsuHsiou Hsu – Brandon HoltHolt (2-1) – H2H and prediction
• Adam WaltonWalton – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Yuta ShimizuShimizu – James Kent TrotterKent Trotter (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Rio NoguchiNoguchi – Sho ShimabukuroShimabukuro (2-0) – H2H and prediction
• Terence AtmaneAtmane – (0-0) – H2H and prediction