diff --git a/sdks/python/apache_beam/metrics/metric.py b/sdks/python/apache_beam/metrics/metric.py
index 4b5a2a5f7bab..1c68ad9b3061 100644
--- a/sdks/python/apache_beam/metrics/metric.py
+++ b/sdks/python/apache_beam/metrics/metric.py
@@ -127,13 +127,12 @@ class MetricResults(object):
 
   @staticmethod
   def _matches_name(filter, metric_key):
-    if not filter.names and not filter.namespaces:
-      return True
-
-    if ((filter.namespaces and metric_key.metric.namespace in filter.namespaces)
-        or (filter.names and metric_key.metric.name in filter.names)):
+    if ((filter.namespaces and
+         metric_key.metric.namespace not in filter.namespaces) or
+        (filter.names and metric_key.metric.name not in filter.names)):
+      return False
+    else:
       return True
-    return False
 
   @staticmethod
   def _is_sub_list(needle, haystack):