Florencia Labat and Virginia Ruano-Pascual had faced each other twice before this afternoon clash. Both were easy hard court wins for Labat -- 6-3, 6-1 at the '94 Australian Open and 6-3, 6-3 this January in Hobart. Would the 22-year-old qualifier from Spain be able to change those fortunes in Montreal?
Ruano-Pascual got off to a very Jekyll-and-Hyde kind of start, playing very well in her return games and falling apart when serving. Labat was the first player to hold serve, doing so to take a 3-2 lead. She added another break of her own, taking a 4-2 lead with a nice forehand pass. Labat further took command of the match by holding at love in the next game. She went on to close out the set 6-3.
Things did not improve for Virginia in the second set. She looked pretty bad, unable to really challenge Flo with any of her shots. Labat didn't lose a point in her first three service games of the set, sprinting ahead 4-2. More Ruano-Pascual errors paved the way to one more break for Labat, who then closed the match out in the next game with an ace. A very comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory for Labat. She wasn't extremely impressive, but she counterpunched well and did enough to win easily.
By the way, Spanish lefty Gala Leon Garcia arrived after the first game of the match and took a seat next to Ruano-Pascual's coach. She stayed for the rest of the match and left with Virginia. This led to a very funny scene. GLG and VRP noticed the roving Tennis Canada mascot (Tee Cee, a walking tennis ball with sunglasses and a big smile) and got very excited. They flagged the mascot down and took turns posing for pictures with him!
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