The season moves into its final few months as the action heads back indoors. In Metz this week, it is the Moselle Open. It is a 250 level event that was won last year by David Goffin. Goffin is not included in this week's field of players.

Wawrinka Leads The Seeds

A bit surprisingly, Stan Wawrinka is here and is the top seed. Wawrinka has not played this tournament since 2007. The remainder of the top four seeds along with the Swiss are Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Tsonga has played here the most of the seeds with a 14-3 mark at this tournament. Simon is 9-4. Both have won the Moselle Open twice in their careers. As expected, this French hosted tournament has plenty of homegrown players with nine players from the host country included in the 28 player field. A Frenchman had won this tournament each year since 2009 until Goffin spoiled that last year by winning the title.

Top Four Seeds On Upset Alert

There have not been all that many seeds who have fallen in their first matches in Metz over the last five years. There has been at least one in each of the last five years, but only multiple seeds losing once in those years. The one thing that has happened is that a top four seed has lost their first match three of the last five years. Fourth seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and top seed Stan Wawrinka are the two who seem most likely to make it four of the last six years.

First Quarter

Stan Wawrinka is the lead seed here. Philipp Kohlschreiber is opposite of Wawrinka as the fifth seed. He looks like the one to watch in this quarter. His opener against John Millman is winnable. Then he gets the winner of Steve Darcis vs Paolo Lorenzi. That is if Darcis even bothers to show up.

After his heroics this weekend in Davis Cup play, this columnist does not expect him to be here. If he is, his stay with be brief to collect a paycheck. That should leave Kohlschreiber to make the quarters in this draw. That could end up producing a Wawrinka vs. Kohlschreiber quarterfinal. The German has won both career meetings, but those came seven years ago. Wawrinka's effort levels in smaller tournaments like these are always a bit questionable, so Kohlschreiber could have a good shot to push through this quarter.

Second Quarter

This quarter is littered with Frenchmen with Adrian Mannarino opposite of Tsonga here as the 7th seed. Nicolas Mahut is unseeded and should take advantage of a fatigued Davis Cup participant from the weekend in Federico Delbonis to possibly get a crack at Mannarino in the second round. Off the bye, Tsonga gets Pablo Carreno Busta or a qualifier. Tsonga had a streak of three straight finals appearances broken in the quarters last year against eventual champion David Goffin.

The draw this year is a little softer for him and that should be conducive to a shot at the semifinals if he is healthy. With two weeks off since his US Open exit, he should be okay although the knee issues bear arching. Mahut is the unseeded player to watch in this quarter. He has made the semifinals and quarterfinals in two of the last four years in Metz. If Tsonga doesn't make it through here, Mahut may sneak into the semifinal spot.

Third Quarter

Gilles SImon has an easier first match with a qualifier scheduled to be his opponent. The final qualifiers for the four open spots are Eduoard Roger-Vasselin, Vincent Millot, Kenny De Schepper and Mischa Zverev.  It is possible one of them could catch Simon cold, but the second seed has proven to be very good at this event. Fernando Verdasco is the 8th seed on the other side of the quarter.

Verdasco faces talented youngster Alexander Zverev in a tough opener. The winner there gets either Gilles Muller. Muller's big serve will be a problem if he's the man in that position. He could be someone who makes an unseeded run in this quarter. Simon has won this title the last two years that he has come to Metz in 2013 and 2010. He should be in contention to get a shot at a third.

Fourth Quarter

If there is a quarter where the seeds could be most prone to early exits, this is it. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez will have a tough time to open against either Pierre Hugues-Herbert or Sergiy Stakhovsky. On the other side of the quarter, 6th seed Martin Klizan may have a rough road to win a few matches. Canadian Vasek Pospisil is in this quarter as an unseeded player.

If healthy. he definitely has the potential to provide some upsets. Pospisil hasn't seen his best results on this surface, but this is a wide open quarter. He will need to be on point against Aleksandr Nedovyesov to open. It is possible that Pospisil could get hot if healthy. This looks like a quarter where one of the unseeded players definitely has a shot to move through with Paul-Henri Mathieu, Herbert and Pospisil all looking like they could surprise here.

Predictions

Semifinals: Tsonga def. Kohlschreiber, Simon def. Herbert
Final: Tsonga def. Simon