Metz R1 previews and predictions: Brown vs. Mathieu, Paire vs. Millot

Dustin Brown will kick off his Metz campaign when he takes the court for first-round action on Tuesday against Paul-Henri Mathieu. Meanwhile, an all-French affair pits Benoit Paire against Vincent Millot.

Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. Dustin Brown

Brown and Mathieu will be squaring off for the first time in their careers when they meet in round one of the Moselle Open on Tuesday. The two veterans are separated by just one spot in the rankings, as Brown just climbed to a career-high mark of No. 68 in the world after finishing runner-up at a clay-court Challenger event in Szczecin, Poland on Sunday. The 31-year-old German appeared to have suffered a serious ankle injury at the Rio Olympics, but he was able to return for the U.S. Open following his Rio retirement against Thomaz Bellucci.

Mathieu has dealt with physical problems of his own throughout his career, but he is armed with a clean bill of health at the moment and has played his way back up to No. 69 in the world. The 34-year-old Frenchman is coming off a second-round performance at Flushing Meadows, where he clobbered Christian Harrison before bowing out to compatriot Nicolas Mahut. Mathieu’s summer also included a quarterfinal showing in Hamburg and a semifinal finish in Gstaad. With Brown making a quick transition from clay to an indoor hard court, Mathieu should be able to treat the French crowd to a hard-fought win.

Pick: Mathieu in 3

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(Q) Vincent Millot vs. (7) Benoit Paire

Paire and Millot will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers at the ATP level on Tuesday. Their only previous encounter came earlier thus season on the indoor hard courts of Marseille, where Paire prevailed 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. The rest of Paire’s 2016 campaign has been similarly underwhelming. The world No. 38 is just 21-25 this season and he took a recent tumble down the rankings after falling to Marcos Baghdatis in the U.S. Open second round (Paire advanced to the fourth round in 2015).

Millot, three years his countryman’s elder at 30, has spent almost his entire career on the Futures and Challenger tours. In fact, he is a mere 4-15 lifetime at the ATP level–including 2-3 this season. The world No. 162 has already done well this week to qualify for the main draw, which he successfully did by beating both Fabrice Martin and Michael Berrer in straight sets. Expect this one to be another typical Paire match, in which the seventh seed lapses in and out of focus before getting the job done.

Pick: Paire in 3

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