Nicolai Budkov Kjaer and Alexandr Binda will play each other in the final of the Astana Challenger for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Sunday at 11:00 am on CENTER COURT. Here the head to head stats and relative prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Nicolai Budkov Kjaer who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Nicolai Budkov Kjaer is the pick to win this match.
Nicolai Budkov Kjaer -> 1.24
Alexandr Binda -> 3.72

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Prediction and head to head Nicolai Budkov Kjaer vs. Alexandr Binda

There is no head to head record between Nicolai Budkov Kjaer and Alexandr Binda since this will be the first time that they will play each other in the main tour.

Nicolai Budkov Kjaer

Ranked no. 187 (career-high), Budkov Kjaer reached the final after defeating Takuya Kumasaka 6-3 6-4, Maximus Jones 6-3 6-0, Ricardas Berankis 7-6(4) 6-4

and Shintaro Imai 6-3 7-5.

In the semifinal, Budkov Kjaer had a good straight sets win against Imai (6-3 7-5). During the match, Budkov Kjaer scored 69 points vs Imai’s 53. Budkov Kjaer was very aggressive to blast 28 winners.

Talking about the service games, Budkov Kjaer made 4 aces and he committed only 2 double faults. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer was extremely efficient on serve to win 82% (28/34) of his 1st serve and 73% (16/22) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Nicolai broke Imai twice after converting 67% of his break points (2/3).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Norwegian hasn’t lost yet a set in this tournament to win 57% of the points he played.

Budkov Kjaer has a solid match record in the last 3 years having won 65% of his matches (58-31). 5-1 on hard in 2025. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this event, Budkov Kjaer has an overall10-6 match record in the last 3 years on hard.

His best result of the current year was winning the title the Glasgow Challenger where he overcame Viktor Durasovic in the final 6-4 6-3 and the Tampere Challenger where he defeated Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg in the final 7-6(5) 6-7(2) 6-2.

Budkov Kjaer has a composed 32-18 win-loss record in 2025, 5-1 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Astana Challenger

The Norwegian has never competed in this tournament before.

Alexandr Binda

Ranked no. 420, Binda got to the final after beating Petr Bar Biryukov 6-3 2-1 ret., Olaf Pieczkowski 6-2 5-7 6-4, Karan Singh 6-4 6-4 and Abedallah Shelbayh 7-6(6) 4-6 7-5.

In the semifinal, Alexandr defeated Shelbayh (7-6⁶ 4-6 7-5). During the match Binda scored 118 points vs Shelbayh’s 115. Binda was very aggressive to blast 46 winners.

About the serving games, Binda recorded 4 aces and he committed only 6 double faults. Alexandr Binda lost the serve 5 times and he saved 8 break points. Furthermore, Binda put 61% of his first serves in, winning 60% (46/77) of the points behind his 1st serve and 60% (30/50) on the 2nd serve. Alexandr broke Shelbayh 5 times after converting 56% of his break points (5/9).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Russian has conceded 2 set in the tournament to win 52% of the points he played.

The Russian’s best result of the current year was getting to the final in M15 Sharm ElSheikh,M15 Ahmedabad and M15 Tsaghkadzor.

The Russian has a compiled 38-18 win-loss record in 2025, 31-15 on hard (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Budkov Kjaer	Binda
Match played	4	4
Tot Set	8	11
Tot Games	78	97
Pts	269-207	346-306
Total Points	476	652
Winners	119	140
%Winners	44%	40%

Both Budkov Kjaer and Binda played 4 matches. At the moment, Alexandr Binda surrendered 2 sets while Nicolai Budkov Kjaer hasn’t lost a set so far. Budkov Kjaer has played 3 set(s) less than Binda (8 vs 11). Therefore, Budkov Kjaer played 19 games less than Binda. Nicolai scored 119 winners (44% of the total points). On the other side, Binda recorded 140 winners (40%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Budkov Kjaer	Binda
Aces	22	15
Avg per match	5.5	3.8
1st in	148/238	207/326
%1st in	62%	63%
1st pts	119/148	140/207
%1st pts	80%	68%
2nd pts	52/90	68/119
%2nd pts	58%	57%

Budkov Kjaer managed to score 22 aces (5.5 per match). Binda bagged 15 aces (3.8 per match). Budkov Kjaer won 80% points on his first serve. He pretty effective on his second serve to win 58% of the points. On the other side, Binda won 68% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 57% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Budkov Kjaer	Binda
Won	11	15
Converted	11/20	15/36
% Converted	55%	42%
Conceded	10	31
Saved	8	22
% Saved	80%	71%
Times Broken	2	9

Nicolai broke his opponents 11 times with a 55% conversion rate. The Norwegian dropped his serve twice and he saved 80% of the break points that he conceded. The Russian broke his opponents 15 times with a 42% conversion rate. Alexandr conceded his serve 9 times and he saved 71% of the break points that he conceded.

Budkov Kjaer
	R1 Kumasaka	R2 Jones	1/4 Berankis	1/2 Imai	Total
Score	6-3 6-4	6-3 6-0	7-64 6-4	6-3 7-5
Tot Set	2	2	2	2	8
Tot Games	19	15	23	21	78
pts	65-55	59-27	76-72	69-53	269-207
Total points	120	86	148	122	476
Winners	35	24	32	28	119
%Winners	54%	41%	42%	41%	44%
SERVE
Aces	8	5	5	4	22
Double Faults	1	3	4	2	10
1st in	45/61	27/48	42/73	34/56	148/238
% 1st in	74%	56%	58%	61%	62%
1st pts	35/45	24/27	32/42	28/34	119/148
% 1st pts	78%	89%	76%	82%	80%
2nd pts	6/16	12/21	18/31	16/22	52/90
% 2nd pts	38%	57%	58%	73%	58%
Breaks
Won	3	4	2	2	11
Converted	3/7	4/5	2/5	2/3	11/20
Converted %	43%	80%	40%	67%	55%
Conceded	5	1	4	0	10
Saved	4/5	1/1	3/4	0/0	8
Saved %	80%	100%	75%	–	64%
Times Broken	1	0	1	0	2

Binda
	R1 Bar	R2 Pieczkowski	1/4 Singh	1/2 Shelbayh	Total
Score	6-3 2-1 ret.	6-2 5-7 6-4	6-4 6-4	7-66 4-6 7-5
Tot Set	2	3	2	3	10
Tot Games	12	30	20	35	97
pts	58-40	100-92	70-59	118-115	346-306
Total points	98	192	129	233	652
Winners	18	46	30	46	140
%Winners	31%	46%	43%	39%	40%
SERVE
Aces	5	0	6	4	15
Double Faults	0	2	5	6	13
1st in	20/26	71/109	39/64	77/127	207/326
% 1st in	77%	65%	61%	61%	63%
1st pts	18/20	46/71	30/39	46/77	140/207
% 1st pts	90%	65%	77%	60%	68%
2nd pts	6/6	22/38	10/25	30/50	68/119
% 2nd pts	100%	58%	40%	60%	57%
Breaks
Won	2	4	4	5	15
Converted	2/15	4/7	4/5	5/9	15/36
Converted %	13%	57%	80%	56%	42%
Conceded	0	12	6	13	31
Saved	0/0	10/12	4/6	8/13	22
Saved %	–	83%	67%	62%	53%
Times Broken	0	2	2	5	9

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