Florencia Labat vs. Naoko Kijimuta
Montreal: Canadian Open
3rd round women's singles
August 8, 1996

I arrived at Court 1 just as Florencia Labat put the finishing touches on a 6-3 first set win. Naoko Kijimuta served to open the second set; Flo fought off three game points to earn the break. She held easily in the next game, then broke Kijimuta again in a long third game. Things were going easy for Labat, but she kept her intensity -- she yelled, "AIIII-YI-YI!!!" after an error. Her errors were rare in this set, however. She quickly steamrolled over her doubles partner, closing out a 6-3, 6-0 win. A very comfortable win for Labat, who rarely had to leave the baseline.

Moving up to Court 1 doesn't necessarily mean an increase in crowd size. There was hardly anybody present for the second set. A few of the fans were appreciative of Florencia's effort, however, and asked for her towels after the match. She also posed for a picture as she was making the walk back along the grounds.

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