Alex Molcan and Abedallah Shelbayh will square off in the quarter of the Istanbul Challenger for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Friday at 12:30 pm on CENTER COURT. In the following lines you can find the head to head analysis and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Alex Molcan who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Alex Molcan is the pick to win this match.
Alex Molcan -> 1.39
Abedallah Shelbayh -> 2.81

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Prediction and head to head Alex Molcan vs. Abedallah Shelbayh

There is no head to head record between Alex Molcan and Abedallah Shelbayh since this will be the first time that they will clash against each other in the main tour.

Alex Molcan

Ranked no. 257, the Slovakian got to the quarter after beating Ivan Nedelko 6-4 1-0 ret. and Martin Landaluce 6-3 6-4.

In the 2^nd round, Molcan had a good straight sets win against Landaluce (6-3 6-4). During the match, Molcan scored 60 points vs Landaluce’s 41. Alex was pretty aggressive to blast 27 winners.

Regarding the service games, Molcan scored just 1 ace throughout the encounter and he committed only 2 double faults. Overall, Alex Molcan was exceptionally effective on serve to win 82% (27/33) of his 1st serve and 69% (11/16) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. The Slovakian broke Landaluce 3 times after converting 43% of his break points (3/7).

Molcan has a solid record in the last 10 years having won 61% of his matches (288-181). 2-1 on hard in 2025. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this competition, Molcan has an aggregate 63-41 match record in the last years on hard.

His best result of the current season was conquering the title the Sofia 2 Challenger where he defeated Joel Schwaerzler in the final 7-5 6-4.

Alex has a compiled 40-11 win-loss record in 2025, 2-1 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Istanbul Challenger

Molcan has never competed in this tournament before.

Abedallah Shelbayh

Ranked no. 351, Shelbayh reached the quarter after beating Moez Echargui 6-4 6-4 and Viktor Durasovic 6-4 6-0.

In the 2^nd round, Abedallah had a good straight sets win against Durasovic (6-4 6-0). During the match Shelbayh scored 66 points vs Durasovic’s 44. Abedallah was extremely aggressive to blast 19 winners.

Talking about serving, Shelbayh managed to score 8 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Overall, Abedallah Shelbayh was quite effective on serve to win 76% (19/25) of his 1st serve and 57% (17/30) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Abedallah broke Durasovic 5 times after converting 63% of his break points (5/8).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Shelbayh hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 56% of the points he played.

Abedallah’s best result of the year was getting to the semifinal in the Astana Challenger.

Shelbayh has an aggregate 16-23 win-loss record in 2025, 14-8 on hard (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Molcan	Shelbayh
Match played	2	2
Tot Set	5	4
Tot Games	30	36
Pts	94-66	130-103
Total Points	160	233
Winners	37	47
%Winners	39%	36%

Both Molcan and Shelbayh played 2 matches. Both players have not dropped a single set in this event so far. Molcan has played 1 set more than Shelbayh (5 vs 4). However, it’s interesting to notice that Molcan played 6 games less than Shelbayh. Molcan scored 37 winners (39% of the total points). On the other side, The made 47 winners (36%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Molcan	Shelbayh
Aces	1	9
Avg per match	0.5	4.5
1st in	46/78	61/119
%1st in	59%	51%
1st pts	37/46	47/61
%1st pts	80%	77%
2nd pts	19/32	33/58
%2nd pts	59%	57%

Molcan scored 1 ace (0.5 per match). Shelbayh also struck 9 aces (4.5 per match). Molcan won 80% points on his first serve. He extremely effective on his second serve to win 59% of the points. On the other side, Shelbayh won 77% 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	Molcan	Shelbayh
Won	6	7
Converted	6/10	7/12
% Converted	60%	58%
Conceded	2	7
Saved	0	6
% Saved	0%	86%
Times Broken	2	1

Alex broke his opponents 6 times with a 60% conversion rate. Alex surrendered his serve twice and he saved 0% of the break points that he conceded. Abedallah broke his opponents 7 times with a 58% conversion rate. Abedallah conceded his serve once and he saved 86% of the break points that he conceded.

Molcan
	R1 Nedelko	R2 Landaluce	Total
Score	6-4 1-0 ret.	6-3 6-4
Tot Set	2	2	4
Tot Games	11	19	30
pts	34-25	60-41	94-66
Total points	59	101	160
Winners	10	27	37
%Winners	29%	45%	39%
SERVE
Aces	0	1	1
Double Faults	0	2	2
1st in	13/29	33/49	46/78
% 1st in	45%	67%	59%
1st pts	10/13	27/33	37/46
% 1st pts	77%	82%	80%
2nd pts	8/16	11/16	19/32
% 2nd pts	50%	69%	59%
Breaks
Won	3	3	6
Converted	3/3	3/7	6/10
Converted %	100%	43%	60%
Conceded	1	1	2
Saved	0/1	0/1	0
Saved %	0%	0%	0%
Times Broken	1	1	2

Shelbayh
	R1 Echargui	R2 Durasovic	Total
Score	6-4 6-4	6-4 6-0
Tot Set	2	2	4
Tot Games	20	16	36
pts	64-59	66-44	130-103
Total points	123	110	233
Winners	28	19	47
%Winners	44%	29%	36%
SERVE
Aces	1	8	9
Double Faults	1	3	4
1st in	36/64	25/55	61/119
% 1st in	56%	45%	51%
1st pts	28/36	19/25	47/61
% 1st pts	78%	76%	77%
2nd pts	16/28	17/30	33/58
% 2nd pts	57%	57%	57%
Breaks
Won	2	5	7
Converted	2/4	5/8	7/12
Converted %	50%	63%	58%
Conceded	4	3	7
Saved	4/4	2/3	6
Saved %	100%	67%	84%
Times Broken	0	1	1

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