Rei Sakamoto and Maxim Zhukov will clash against each other in the 2^nd round of the Yokohama Challenger for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Wednesday at 10:00 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 Rei Sakamoto who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Rei Sakamoto is the pick to win this match.
Rei Sakamoto -> 1.24
Maxim Zhukov -> 3.56

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Prediction and head to head Rei Sakamoto vs. Maxim Zhukov

There is no head to head record between Rei Sakamoto and Maxim Zhukov since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.

Rei Sakamoto

Ranked no. 176, Rei reached the 2^nd round after beating Kasidit Samrej 6-4 7-6(1).

In the 1^st round, Sakamoto had a good straight sets win against Samrej (6-4 7-6¹). During the match, Sakamoto scored 74 points vs Samrej’s 57. Rei was extremely aggressive to blast 35 winners.

Talking about the service games, Sakamoto scored 13 aces and he was extremely consistent in conceding no double faults. Overall, Rei Sakamoto was exceptionally effective on serve to win 88% (35/40) of his 1st serve and 63% (10/16) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Rei broke Samrej twice after converting 33% of his break points (2/6).

Sakamoto has a winning record in the last 4 years having won 51% of his matches (62-59). 23-16 on hard in 2025. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this competition, Sakamoto has an aggregate41-34 record in the last 4 years on hard.

His best result of the current year was winning the title the Cary Challenger where he defeated Liam Draxl in the final 6-1 6-4.

Sakamoto has a composed 30-26 win-loss record in 2025, 23-16 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Yokohama Challenger

Maxim Zhukov

Ranked no. 455 (career-high), Maxim reached the 2^nd round after defeating Ryo Tabata 6-4 6-4.

In the 1^st round, Zhukov had a good straight sets win against Tabata (6-4 6-4). During the match Zhukov scored 79 points vs Tabata’s 64. Zhukov was quite aggressive to blast 19 winners.

About the serving games, Zhukov fired 4 aces and he committed only 1 double fault for the entire match. Maxim Zhukov lost the serve 3 times and he saved 2 break points. Furthermore, Zhukov put 53% of his first serves in, winning 66% (19/29) of the points behind his 1st serve and 58% (15/26) on the 2nd serve. Maxim broke Tabata 5 times after converting 33% of his break points (5/15).

Maxim’s best result of the season was reaching the final in M25 Bhopal,M15 Monastir and M15 Maanshan.

Zhukov has a compiled 41-24 win-loss record in 2025, 26-17 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Yokohama Challenger

Maxim has never competed in this tournament before.

H2H Performance in the tournament

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Sakamoto	Zhukov
Match played	1	1
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	23	20
Pts	74-57	79-64
Total Points	131	143
Winners	35	19
%Winners	47%	24%

Both Sakamoto and Zhukov played 1 match. Both players have not dropped a single set in this event so far. Talking about their workload, Sakamoto and Zhukov have played the same amount of sets 2. However, Sakamoto played 3 games more than Zhukov. Rei scored 35 winners (47% of the total points). On the other side, Zhukov bagged 19 winners (24%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Sakamoto	Zhukov
Aces	13	4
Avg per match	13	4
1st in	40/56	29/55
%1st in	71%	53%
1st pts	35/40	19/29
%1st pts	88%	66%
2nd pts	10/16	15/26
%2nd pts	63%	58%

Sakamoto blasted 13 aces . Zhukov made 4 aces . Sakamoto won 88% points on his first serve. He very solid his second serve to win 63% of the points. On the other side, Zhukov won 66% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 58% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Sakamoto	Zhukov
Won	2	5
Converted	2/6	5/15
% Converted	33%	33%
Conceded	2	5
Saved	1	2
% Saved	50%	40%
Times Broken	1	3

Sakamoto broke his opponent twice with a 33% conversion rate. Sakamoto dropped his serve once and he saved 50% of the break points that he conceded. Zhukov broke his opponent 5 times with a 33% conversion rate. The Russian conceded his serve 3 times and he saved 40% of the break points that he conceded.

Sakamoto
	R1 Samrej	Total
Score	6-4 7-61
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	23	23
pts	74-57	74-57
Total points	131	131
Winners	35	35
%Winners	47%	47%
SERVE
Aces	13	13
Double Faults	0	0
1st in	40/56	40/56
% 1st in	71%	71%
1st pts	35/40	35/40
% 1st pts	88%	88%
2nd pts	10/16	10/16
% 2nd pts	63%	63%
Breaks
Won	2	2
Converted	2/6	2/6
Converted %	33%	33%
Conceded	2	2
Saved	1/2	1
Saved %	50%	50%
Times Broken	1	1

Zhukov
	R1 Tabata	Total
Score	6-4 6-4
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	20	20
pts	79-64	79-64
Total points	143	143
Winners	19	19
%Winners	24%	24%
SERVE
Aces	4	4
Double Faults	1	1
1st in	29/55	29/55
% 1st in	53%	53%
1st pts	19/29	19/29
% 1st pts	66%	66%
2nd pts	15/26	15/26
% 2nd pts	58%	58%
Breaks
Won	5	5
Converted	5/15	5/15
Converted %	33%	33%
Conceded	5	5
Saved	2/5	2
Saved %	40%	40%
Times Broken	3	3

Tennis Scores in Yokohama Challenger

• Kaylan BigunBigun – Elias YmerYmer (3-0 ret.) – See score progression
• Yusuke KusuharaKusuhara – Kokoro IsomuraIsomura (7-5 6-3) – See score progression
• Michael VrbenskyVrbensky – Woobin ShinShin (6-3 6-3) – See score progression
• Kaichi UchidaUchida – Hyeon ChungChung (6-3 6-0) – See score progression
• Rei SakamotoSakamoto – Kasidit SamrejSamrej (6-4 7-6¹) – See score progression
• Sanhui ShinShin – Lennon Roark JonesRoark Jones (3-6 6-1 6-2) – See score progression
• Neil OberleitnerOberleitner – Yu Hsiou HsuHsiou Hsu (7-5 6-2) – See score progression
• Igor Ribeiro MarcondesRibeiro Marcondes – Oliver CrawfordCrawford (6-4 6-4) – See score progression
• Ryotaro TaguchiTaguchi – Maximus JonesJones (7-6³ 6-2) – See score progression
• Hikaru ShiraishiShiraishi – Max BasingBasing (2-6 6-2 6-3) – See score progression
• Yuki MochizukiMochizuki – Jumpei YamasakiYamasaki (6-4 7-6⁵) – See score progression
• Kei NishikoriNishikori – Taisei IchikawaIchikawa (4-6 6-1 6-1) – See score progression
• Yuta ShimizuShimizu – Yusuke TakahashiTakahashi (6-2 6-2) – See score progression
• Akira SantillanSantillan – Masamichi ImamuraImamura (6-0 6-2) – See score progression
• Yasutaka UchiyamaUchiyama – Tsung-Hao HuangHuang (6-4 7-6¹¹) – See score progression
• Maxim ZhukovZhukov – Ryo TabataTabata (6-4 6-4) – See score progression

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Kei NishikoriNishikori – Sanhui ShinShin (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Yasutaka UchiyamaUchiyama – Michael VrbenskyVrbensky (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Akira SantillanSantillan – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Igor Ribeiro MarcondesRibeiro Marcondes – Yuki MochizukiMochizuki (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Yuta ShimizuShimizu – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Hikaru ShiraishiShiraishi – Neil OberleitnerOberleitner (1-0) – H2H and prediction