ATP Metz Preview

ATP METZ / MOSELLE OPEN 2016: FRANCE (Indoor Hard)

Since 2009, ATP Metz has been dominated by home favourites who won the title 6 out of 7 times:

Tsonga in 2011, 2012 and 2015
Simon in 2010 and 2013
Monfils in 2009 and
Goffin in 2014

With both Tsonga and Monfils missing this year, this has to be a much more open tournament on paper.

Favourites:

Simon, Thiem and Goffin

As mentioned, both Simon and Goffin have already won here and should be amongst the top favourites.
Thiem has been improving rapidly in the last year or so, there is obvious reason to back the young Austrian. His main threat is Simon who will likely meet him in the Semis.

Since Goffin is in the bottom half of the draw, there is probably more reason to back him amongst these three favourites on the Outright market.

Form factor:

Lucas Pouille

If you are putting form as the main reliable factor in predicting the winner, Lucas Pouille should be on your list as the Frenchman has already had an amazing year, especially at the recent US Open where he came back from the brink to beat a very tough Rafa Nadal. This guy can play some seriously good Tennis and being a home favourite could only make things hard for his opponents.

Experience factor:

Benneteau and Muller

Both vastly experienced and historically very good on hard courts, I find Benneteau and Muller pretty decent bets for the outrights.

Surprise Package:

Dustin Brown

My best suggestion for a player with a ‘giant-killer’ instinct would be the German Dustin Brown who actually played pretty well in the same tourney last year after coming close to knocking out Stan Wawrinka. His massive serve and very unorthodox style of play, especially drop shots, can be a pain even for some of the best players out there.

Prediction:

Goffin or Simon gets my tick mark more because they have been there and done it on the final stage. If I would pick one, I would go for Goffin emerging as the victor here at Moselle as he is much younger than the veteran Simon.

Thanks for reading…

Patrick Ross