Florencia Labat vs. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
Montreal: Canadian Open
Quarterfinal, women's singles
August 9, 1996

Flo won the toss and elected to serve. So far so good...

FIRST SET:

Game 1) Florencia serves a surprising ace and holds easily. 1-0 LABAT

Game 2) Flo gets a break point, then makes three straight errors. 1-1

Game 3) Another ace for Labat! She gets broken, though, when a Sanchez Vicario forehand at 30-40 hits the tape and creeps over the net. 2-1 ASV

Game 4) A game full of long rallies. Labat earns two break points, but Sanchez Vicario bears down and holds serve. 3-1 ASV

Game 5) Florencia holds pretty convincingly. 3-2 ASV

Game 6) Arantxa gets down 15-30, but rallies to win the game. 4-2 ASV

Game 7) Flo gets down 0-30, but wins the next four points. The last is another big serve! 4-3 ASV

Game 8) One of Arantxa's easiest service games. 5-3 ASV

Game 9) Florencia goes up 40-0, then loses four straight points to give ASV a set point. She gets back to deuce, then serves a double fault to give Arantxa another set point. Labat comes back again, though, and pulls out the game. 5-4 ASV

Game 10) A love hold for Sanchez Vicario, ending on a Labat error. 6-4 ASV

SECOND SET:

Game 1) Flo holds impressively. 1-0 LABAT

Game 2) Flo goes up 15-40, but Arantxa battles back with a disputed ace (the crowd whistled and Flo argued). More long rallies follow, with ASV fighting off a total of three break chances in the game. 1-1

Game 3) Arantxa hits a backhand into the net to end this hold for Flo. 2-1 LABAT

Game 4) Florencia goes up 0-30, blows two break points on errors, then finally converts one in yet another long baseline exchange. 3-1 LABAT

Game 5) Flo argues another call to no avail; the crowd agrees again. ASV hits a great lunge volley at 30-all, then wins the game on a Labat error. 3-2 LABAT

Game 6) Arantxa holds serve without dropping a point. 3-3

Game 7) Florencia gets down 0-40, keeps fending off break points (a total of five in the game), but finally succumbs to the pressure on breaker #6. 4-3 ASV

Game 8) The end is near. 5-3 ASV

Game 9) A strong game from Florencia. 5-4 ASV

Game 10) Flo takes a 15-40 lead, but makes four errors in a row. 6-4 ASV

Florencia really made Arantxa work for this one. They're mirror images in terms of playing style, both running down everything and working the opponent from side to side. Arantxa's got a bit more powe and better rises to the occasion on big points. Florencia should be proud of this showing, though. She quite possibly would have scored the biggest win of her career if she'd been a bit more aggressive in the clutch.

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