“Gabriela’s Game-Changing Victory: Sabatini Takes Down Top Seed at the US Open”
This piece celebrated Andre Agassi’s 50 years a fortnight ago. Gabriela Sabatini is the one turning fifty now. What was the connection between these two 1970 babies? Not much, except from having a lot of hair and being quite marketable. In contrast, Sabatini’s jet-black locks were the real stuff, unlike Agassi, who has since acknowledged wearing a wig. As smooth as her opulent backhand, they flowed—in the words of one enamored reporter—”as iridescent as a raven’s wing.” If she had added some shoulder pads, she could have looked like she had stepped off the set of Dynasty.
This lady had it all: not only was she glamorous and athletic, but she also had that mysterious character that appeals to advertisers. The young Roger Federer had to have been impressed, too. He said in a 2006 radio interview that he had a youthful crush on Sabatini. Federer’s appreciation has a delightfully appropriate quality. Because Sabatini consistently faced her own archenemy, Steffi Graf, in the championship match of every competition she participated in, just as Federer would eventually find a lifelong foe in Rafael Nadal. Two long-term contrast collisions: Latin fire vs Germanic ice.
The novelist Martin Amis described this matchup as “Fraulein Forehand meets Bonita Backhand” in a 1988 column for Vogue. Furthermore, he was open about which side he was rooting for. Amis stated, “Sabatini appears to be a (successful) experiment in genetico-aesthetics.” “Designed, raised, and groomed to achieve maximum beauty.”
Here, money could be made. It came in the unexpected shape of a perfume deal that summer of 1988, something no previous female athlete in any sport had ever accepted. In addition to Gabriela Sabatini the player, Gabriela Sabatini the scent would have an even longer and more illustrious career, giving rise to 14 distinct versions and multi-million dollar earnings that are still being made today. Because he believed the numbers were an error, her agent Patricio Apey recalls returning the first royalty cheque. She used to make more money than Graf and Monica Seles combined.
