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  • Open de Moselle title is wide open

    9/29/08 7:07 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - The season-ending indoor swing goes full steam ahead this week in Metz, France with the Open de Moselle. An evenly-matched field makes the trophy completely up for grabs.

    Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic are resting up for the bigger tournaments and most of the other top players packed their bags for the AIG Japan Open. The result is an Open de Moselle that is still deep with talent, but right there for anyone in the draw to win.

    In fact it's hard to imagine a tournament with more potential winners than this one. Top-seeded Ivo Karlovic is the highest-ranked player at 14th in the world, but the depth is remarkable. Just consider some of the men who aren't even seeded: Carlos Moya, Marcos Baghdatis, Ernests Gulbis, Janko Tipsarevic, Michael Llodra, and Feliciano Lopez. Yes, it is safe to say the Open de Moselle is completely up for grabs.

    Being in the bottom half of the draw, however, appears to be ideal for making a real run this week. No. 2 seed Gilles Simon was on fire for much of the summer, but indoor hard courts are not perfect for his consistent, counter-punching style. Nonetheless, Simon will have a French crowd behind him and has to be considered the favorite to reach the final out of this section.

    That's not to say this portion of the draw isn't there for the taking. Fourth-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu has been slumping, No. 6 seed Andreas Seppi is far from imposing on fast hard courts, and No. 8 Mario Ancic has is just now coming back from yet another injury. In other words, the door could open for an unseeded threat such as Gulbis, Tipsarevic, or even one of two Frenchmen: Arnaud Clement and Marc Gicquel.

    The top half could be an even bigger free-for-all, but it also looks a lot tougher. No. 1 seed Ivo Karlovic and No. 5 Dmitry Tursunov are always difficult outs on fast hard courts. So is seventh-seeded Radek Stepanek, who reached an indoor final in San Jose earlier this season. No. 3 seed Nicolas Almagro is much more of a clay-court specialist, but he has the serve to be dangerous on this surface as well.

    The talent in the top half does not end there; not even close. Look at the unseeded players who are bidding for the title spot from this section of the draw: Baghdatis, Albert Montanes, Moya, Jose Acasuso, Guillermo Canas, Eduardo Schwank, Victor Hanescu, Ivan Ljubicic, Llodra, Lopez, and Julien Benneteau.

    With such a deep and evenly-matched field, fans will not have to wait until the final weekend to witness some inspiring, fiercely-contested tennis. The action should be scintillating right from the very start, and some of the blockbuster first-round showdowns include Karlovic vs. Baghdatis, Llodra vs. Lopez, and Ancic vs. Gulbis.

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