Gabriela Sabatini: “My personality was shy.” Tennis gave me a way to express…
During the early 1990s, the Argentinean player was among the best in the world. At the age of 20, she defeated German opponent Steffi Graf 6-2 7-6 in the US Open, her biggest career victory. During the tournament, she only lost one set to Mary Joe Fernandez. At the age of fifteen, Sabatini lost to American tennis great Chris Evert in the semifinals of the 1985 French Open, making history as one of the youngest players to ever make it that far. Later that year in Tokyo, Sabatini captured her first-ever top-level singles title.
In addition, Sabatini defeated Graf in the Seoul 1988 Olympic singles final and captured two WTA Finals titles (1988 and 1994). She also lost the 1988 Wimbledon women’s doubles championship. The German superstar achieved the Golden Grand Slam with her Olympic gold medal in the capital of South Korea. Graf and Sabatini took home the Wimbledon doubles championship that same year.
Before Graf won the third set 8-6, Sabatini was two points away from winning Wimbledon in 1991. When Gabriela was a teenager in 1988, she made it to her first US Open final but lost to Graf in three sets. After Margaret Smith Court in 1970 and Maureen Connolly in 1953, the German became the third player in history to win all four Grand Slam championships in a single year. With 37 WTA titles under her belt, Sabatini peaked at number three in the world. Eleven Grand Slam singles semifinals occurred during her career as well.
Sabatini and Graf had forty encounters between 1985 and 1995. Graf defeated her player from South America 29 times. In 1988, 1989, 1991, and 1992, Sabatini took home four championships at the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome. Because of her Italian ancestry, the Argentine player had a unique connection to the Rome crowd and competition. At the close of the 1800s, her grandfather David Sabbatini left his birthplace of Potenza Picena in the Marche region and emigrated to Argentina.
