The 2024 Moselle Open in Metz is one of the last two ATP 250 tournaments of the season, and the draw for the event has been released.
Running from November 3rd to 9th, there are no other regular ATP tournaments after the Moselle Open. Therefore, it is also the last tournament that counts towards the 2024 Race to Turin, meaning that players who are in a fight for the last ATP Finals spots had an incentive to join the playing field.
Usually, the draws for ATP 250 tournaments are that strong, but the possibility of making it to the year-end championship motivates all the players ranked around the eighth place in the ATP Race to enter also the Moselle Open or the Belgrade Open, which is played in the same week.
Since the Moselle Open is held in Metz, which is in France and obviously closer to Paris than Belgrade, it's not a surprise that the majority of players who still have a chance to qualify chose this city over the Serbian capital.
The top seed at the event is Andrey Rublev. The Russian player is currently ranked ninth in the ATP Race, which would not be enough to make it to Turin. However, he is very close to securing the spot, but that depends also on the results of his closest rivals.
Rublev currently has 3,720 points to his name, which is only 25 less than the eighth Alex de Minaur, who will compete in Belgrade as the top seed. The important rival in the Race for these players is also Novak Djokovic, who is currently sixth and has 3,910 points.
However, the Serbian player is the only one who won't play in these ATP 250 tournaments, meaning that if they surpass him, they would likely qualify. To do that, Rublev would need to win the tournament. Alternatively, he would need to outperform De Minaur or Casper Ruud, who is the second seed at this event.
In the first round of the tournament, Rublev will have a BYE, like all the top four seeded players, and in round two, he will play against the winner of the match between Facundo Diaz Acosta and Lorenzo Sonego.
The second-seeded Ruud is in a slightly better position than Rublev. He is seventh in the Race and has a 125-point lead over the Russian. That means reaching the final in Metz would be enough for him to qualify, even if the Russian player won the event.
Ruud might need to do even less than that, but his draw was not the easiest. In the second round, he will start against Roberto Bautista Agut or one of the qualifiers.
Holger Rune also still has a chance to qualify for the year-end championships. He might be far behind his rivals, currently 13th with 3,025 points, but he is the only one left in the Paris Masters draw, having reached the semi-finals at the last ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season.
If he wins in the French capital, he would arrive in Metz with a 95-point deficit on the ninth Rublev. As the fourth seed at the event, he will want to do damage, starting against either Adrian Mannarino or Yunchaokete Bu in the second round.
Grigor Dimitrov is the third seed in Moselle, starting against Cameron Norrie or Roberto Carballes Baena, but after his loss at the Paris Masters and loss of hope for qualifying, it wouldn't be a surprise if he withdrew from the tournament.
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|
| Andrey Rublev [1] | Bye |
| Facundo Diaz Acosta | Lorenzo Sonego |
| Sumit Nagal | Corentin Moutet |
| Alexander Shevchenko | Jan-Lennard Struff [7] |
| Grigor Dimitrov [3] [WC] | Bye |
| Cameron Norrie | Roberto Carballes Baena |
| Qualifier | Zizou Bergs |
| Hugo Gaston | Ugo Humbert [5] |
| Alex Michelsen [8] | Harold Mayot [WC] |
| Richard Gasquet [WC] | Thiago Monteiro |
| Adrian Mannarino | Yunchaokete Bu |
| Bye | Holger Rune [4] |
| Pedro Martinez [6] | Qualifier |
| Qualifier | Arthur Rinderknech |
| Roberto Bautista Agut | Qualifier |
| Bye | Casper Ruud [2] |