Secrets and truths of Gabriela Sabatini’s fury in Rome: from tennis to paddle tennis, why the Foro Italico is still hers

ROMA.- Rita Grande She is a Napoli supporter, a fan of Diego Maradona and, above all, she was a classy tennis player. She three titles, 24th in the ranking and round of 16 in almost all majors at a time when the women’s tour was a work of art. At 47 years old, she walks through her house, through the Foro Italico, mixed in the feast of paddle tennis, with a share of nostalgia. “Gabriela Sabatini”, he is told, as he passes. So she sits down, stops the incipient tears, and remembers.

“When I started playing, she was already a great champion. In those years, Rome became a Little Argentina. All the people sang for Gabriela, she was a beautiful woman and a great athlete. It must be the magnetism of Rome and her smile… The smile! She was a beauty, always with sympathy. People said ‘oooooohhh’ when her sports skirt was raised minimally, you have to understand that those were other times. People, in the streets, keep talking about Gabriela, they feel like ours, like one of us”, says Rita, recalling the magnetism of the best athlete in our history. Here, in Italy, in the streets of the Foro Italico, Gaby was -still is- much more than four titles with the best of his lineage.

Try to explain the feeling. “His image and his talent captivated the Romans. I think she has to do with her Italian ancestry, the public identified her for it. In addition, it was the time of Maradona in Napoli, so there was a kind of ‘Argentinity’ of the Italians for them. But Gaby was special. I believe that he represented –and represented us- the beautiful life. She was the image of joy, she played like an artist and never had a reproach, a bad face. Here she found her best profile, perhaps because she was always accompanied by the affection of the people, who adopted her as her own from the beginning. They always applauded her, the atmosphere was unique when she played here”, he describes, in time travel.

Gaby was empowered like no other stage. Four times individual champion (1988, 1989, 1991 and 1992), two times finalist. fan clubs. She performed in the main draw of the contest for the first time in 1987, at the age of 17; she was the fourth seed and lost the final against the German Steffi Graf 7-5, 4-6 and 6-0. “In Rome something magical happened to me: I stepped on the place and my energy changed. It was very special. I don’t know why… The family past influenced, without a doubt. When I played I had Italian uncles and cousins ​​who came to cheer me on the pitch. It was incredible”, Gaby told La Nación some time ago.

Describing the good old days Sabatini: “In the tournament, most of the time I played on the center court, I loved it because it had the particularity of the statues on the sides. That made it unique. The club looked like one of ours, it was very warm. I really liked watching the games from the terrace. Also, there is a lot of passion there. The fans were waiting for me at the hotel when I left and also at the club”.

There is a tunnel that takes us to the past, like in the movies. The trail ends in the privacy of the club, where the tennis players load the machine. The gym, personal spaces, medical care. The locker rooms. Beneath the Pietrangeli, a world of faces, with raised trophies, with poses for history. The Champions. From that corridor, you go up to the magnificent main stage, which is not used by paddle tennis: there is a sea of ​​little ones with dreams of greatness. In that tunnel, her. Four images take note of the greatness of Gaby in the capital of Italy. Always, always, with a smile.

Meanwhile, the best of world padel continues its course. The semifinals of the authentic Grand Slam are approaching, which is played in the same Roman corner where Novak Djokovic was once again the best Nole a few days ago. The semifinals are coming: pure adrenaline for this Saturday. It is an annual category one tournament, which completes the list of four Majors of the new circuit Premier Padel and 2022: Italy, France (at Roland Garros, from July 11 to 17), Mexico (in Monterrey, in November) and Qatar, which was played in March. Distribute 525,000 euros in prizes, quite an event. Invited, Rita Grande gets excited about paddle tennis, about the present. And she makes a space for melancholy, always with Sabatini on her side of the heart.

“Roma and Gaby were a perfect marriage. The brightness, the colors, the intensity of the city and its quality, as a tennis player and as a person. She was a model. Her parents and her brother were received with great affection, too. It’s that she felt like an Italian, she was followed on TV as if she were ‘ours’. From a distance, if you stop a tennis fan and say ‘Gabriela’, automatically, you will see a sparkle in their eyes”. And he says goodbye, with history in tow.