Points won by each set: [ 20-30, 25-12, 34-23 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
28 % Arazi – 22 of 78
19 % Squillari – 13 of 66

A meeting of two left-handed players with one-handed backhands, who had been rather unknown to the broader audience before 1997. The 24-year-old Arazi [61] reached his first ATP semifinal in Doha ’97, while two years younger Squillari [120] also won only once three consecutive ATP matches – it gave him the quarterfinal in Kitzbuhel ’96. So two inexperienced guys (Arazi played his 29th, Squillari 9th main-level event) found themselves in a new territory. Arazi was in a better position because he had a chauvinistic crowd behind himself, albeit the crowd who didn’t help two other Marrocan players (El Aynaoui, Alami) when they faced Squillari in two previous rounds… Very rarely occurs a match when one rally in seemingly unimportant moment has a huge impact on the final outcome. It was one of those rare cases – the Argentinian led *2:0 (15/30) in the 3rd set as they were involved in a 45-stroke rally ended up with Squillari netting his forehand. He was running more during that rally as well as over the course of the entire final. That lost very long point wore him down, his forehand was still dangerous afterwards, but he began committing many simple errors and lost the final six games.

Arazi’s route to his lone title:
1 Jozsef Krocsko 6-3, 6-1
2 David Skoch 6-3, 6-3
Q Emilio Benfele-Alvarez 6-2, 6-1
S Gilbert Schaller 6-2, 7-6(5)
W Franco Squillari 3-6, 6-1, 6-2