Cezar Cretu and Nikita Mashtakov will fight against each other in the qualifications of the Targu Mures 1 Challenger for the 2^nd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Monday at 11:00 am on COURT 3. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Cezar Cretu who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Cezar Cretu is the pick to win this match.
Cezar Cretu -> 1.146
Nikita Mashtakov -> 4.95

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Prediction and head to head Cezar Cretu vs. Nikita Mashtakov

This will be the 2^nd time that Cezar Cretu and Nikita Mashtakov clash against each other. The head to head is 1-0 for Mashtakov (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on clay.

The last time that they played, Mashtakov won 4-6 6-3 6-3 in the 1^st round in M15 Targu Mures back in 2019.

Cezar Cretu

Ranked no. 504, Cezar got to the qualifications after defeating Matei Varbanciu 6-3 6-2.

In the qualifications, Cezar had a good straight sets win against Varbanciu (6-3 6-2). During the match, Cretu scored 60 points vs Varbanciu’s 49. Cezar was exceptionally aggressive to blast 25 winners.

Talking about the service games, Cretu couldn’t to score even 1 ace and he committed only 3 double faults. Cezar Cretu lost the serve once and he saved 2 break points. Furthermore, Cretu put 67% of his first serves in, winning 66% (25/38) of the points behind his 1st serve and 53% (10/19) on the 2nd serve. Cezar broke Varbanciu 4 times after converting 67% of his break points (4/6).

Cretu has a solid win-loss record in the last 8 years having won 69% of his matches (281-128). 31-14 on clay in 2025. Regarding his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Cretu has a composed242-102 record in the last 8 years on clay.

Cezar’s best result of the year was reaching the final in M15 Bistrita,M15 Targu Jiu,M15 Arad and M15 Bucharest.

The Romanian has a compiled 37-18 win-loss record in 2025, 31-14 on clay (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Targu Mures 1 Challenger

Cezar has never competed in this tournament before.

Nikita Mashtakov

Ranked no. 834, the Ukrainian reached the qualifications after defeating Lawrence Bataljin 6-1 6-4.

In the qualifications, The Ukrainian had a good straight sets win against Bataljin (6-1 6-4). During the match Mashtakov scored 72 points vs Bataljin’s 51. The Ukrainian was quite aggressive to blast 27 winners.

Talking about serving, Mashtakov managed to score 2 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Overall, Nikita Mashtakov was pretty efficient on serve to win 77% (27/35) of his 1st serve and 53% (9/17) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Nikita broke Bataljin 4 times after converting 33% of his break points (4/12).

The Ukrainian’s best result of the current season was getting to the semifinal in M15 Zagreb and M15 Sofia.

The Ukrainian has a composed 23-23 win-loss record in 2025, 23-23 on clay (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Cretu	Mashtakov
Match played	1	1
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	17	17
Pts	60-49	72-51
Total Points	109	123
Winners	25	27
%Winners	42%	38%

Both Cretu and Mashtakov played 1 match. Also both players started their run from the qualifications.Both players have not conceded a single set in this event so far. Talking about their workload, Cretu and Mashtakov have played the same amount of sets 2. They also played the same amount of games (17). Cretu scored 25 winners (42% of the total points). On the other side, Nikita made 27 winners (38%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Cretu	Mashtakov
Aces	0	2
Avg per match	0	2
1st in	38/57	35/52
%1st in	67%	67%
1st pts	25/38	27/35
%1st pts	66%	77%
2nd pts	10/19	9/17
%2nd pts	53%	53%

Cretu didn’t manage to fire a single ace to far. Mashtakov made 2 aces . Cretu won 66% points behind his first serve. He quite strong on his second serve to win 53% of the points. On the other side, Mashtakov won 77% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 53% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Cretu	Mashtakov
Won	4	4
Converted	4/6	4/12
% Converted	67%	33%
Conceded	3	2
Saved	2	1
% Saved	67%	50%
Times Broken	1	1

Cretu broke his opponent 4 times with a 67% conversion rate. Cezar conceded his serve once and he saved 67% of the break points that he conceded. The Ukrainian broke his opponent 4 times with a 33% conversion rate. Mashtakov conceded his serve once and he saved 50% of the break points that he conceded.

Cretu
	Q1 Varbanciu	Total
Score	6-3 6-2
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	17	17
pts	60-49	60-49
Total points	109	109
Winners	25	25
%Winners	42%	42%
SERVE
Aces	0	0
Double Faults	3	3
1st in	38/57	38/57
% 1st in	67%	67%
1st pts	25/38	25/38
% 1st pts	66%	66%
2nd pts	10/19	10/19
% 2nd pts	53%	53%
Breaks
Won	4	4
Converted	4/6	4/6
Converted %	67%	67%
Conceded	3	3
Saved	2/3	2
Saved %	67%	67%
Times Broken	1	1

Mashtakov
	Q1 Bataljin	Total
Score	6-1 6-4
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	17	17
pts	72-51	72-51
Total points	123	123
Winners	27	27
%Winners	38%	38%
SERVE
Aces	2	2
Double Faults	3	3
1st in	35/52	35/52
% 1st in	67%	67%
1st pts	27/35	27/35
% 1st pts	77%	77%
2nd pts	9/17	9/17
% 2nd pts	53%	53%
Breaks
Won	4	4
Converted	4/12	4/12
Converted %	33%	33%
Conceded	2	2
Saved	1/2	1
Saved %	50%	50%
Times Broken	1	1

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