The opinion of Fernando Gómez: Remembering the figure of Gabriela Sabatini

And it is that in the last French Open, Argentina put an end to its mediatic distance from the tennis courts for two and a half decades. After retiring from professional tennis at just 26 years old, she returned to play the legends tournament in Paris alongside compatriot Gisela Dulko, also in early retirement. In her video, Gabriela argues with Nadal that if he is going to play the rematch of the Roland Garros final with Casper Ruud in Argentina, he could also accompany her.

At the time of writing these lines, I do not know if the recording was made spontaneously by Sabatini, if he had discussed it with Nadal or if it is part of a promotional campaign and it has already been agreed that they will play together. No matter. What I want to emphasize is that the presence of Gaby and Rafa on the same side of a tennis court would bring together the best Spaniard with the best Argentine ever. What in reverse would represent Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Guillermo Vilas. It seems to me a great occasion to remember the figure of Gabriela Sabatini or, what is the same, the extreme elegance inside and outside the game.

The former tennis player from Buenos Aires (May 16, 1970) has meant much more to her sport than her professional resume says. However, we take as a starting point to contextualize her professional achievements. She was the winner of the 1990 US Open in New York, of the Masters in 1988 and 1994, she won the individual silver medal in the return of tennis to the Olympic program in Seoul 1988. She became number 3 in the world for the first time in February 1989 At the age of 14, she was already among the top 40 in the world rankings and was able to defeat 3 TOP-10 players in the Hilton Head tournament (Zina Garrison, ninth; Pam Shriver, fifth; and Manuela Maleeva, fourth). She lost that final to Chris Evert, who declared at the conclusion that because of the power of the game and her talent (great forehand and one-handed backhand) she thought she had played against the great Evonne Goolagong (the Australian won 7 Grand Slam singles titles) . That same course of 1995, with only 15 years and three weeks, she became the youngest to reach a Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros. There were those who considered Sabatini as the eternal semifinalist and that is that she did not reach any final at the Australian Open or at Roland Garros, despite the fact that she played four semifinals in the first of them and five in the second. At Wimbledon she only won one of the four semi-finals she entered and in New York she came out on top in two out of five. Her balance in these rounds of the last four was, therefore, only 3 wins out of 18 faced. As a doubles player Gaby won Wimbledon in 1988 together with Steffi Graf (we will dedicate the following paragraph to everything she shared on the courts with the best German player of all time) and since 2006 her name has been in the International Tennis Hall of Fame. of Newport, in Rhode Island, United States, about which we wrote here last July 22. The other great recognition she received was in 2000 the Konex Brilliant Award as the best Argentine athlete of the last decade of the 20th century. Just next Monday the 24th will be the 26th anniversary of the announcement of her retirement in New York, the city of her greatest successes, since she won the two WTA Tour Championships at Madison Square Garden.

Although it coincided with that considered by many analysts to be the golden age of women’s tennis, in which it surpassed the men’s in worldwide following, we are referring to the end of the stage of dominance of Evert and Martina Navratilova mixed with the presence of figures of the relevance of Monica Seles, the Spanish Arantxa Sánchez and Conchita Martínez, Mary Joe Fernández, Lindsay Davenport or Jennifer Capriati, without a doubt, their reference, either on the same side or with the network as a separation, was Graf, together with their great moments. It is true that she lost 28 times to the German winner of 22 Major titles, but Gaby is the only one who managed to defeat her on more than 10 occasions, there were 11. She lifted her only Major after defeating Graf in the 1990 New York final. She contested two other Grand Slam singles finals, but lost to herself in three sets in both. They were at the United States Open in 1988 and at Wimbledon in 1991. As has already been said, her most important title as a doubles player was achieved by her partnering with Graf. And she, also in association with the German, was three times runner-up in the women’s double at Roland Garros. As if that were not enough, on October 1, 1988, when Graf won the Golden Slam (all four Grand Slam singles titles and individual Olympic gold in the same season) in Seoul, his rival was Sabatini, who had won his two first crosses of that year.

Above all sporting achievements, Sabatini’s legacy, although diminished by his premature goodbye, is much broader. Not only is she the best Argentine tennis player, but the most outstanding ever in the entire South American continent. Whether it was because of her level of play and results, because of her beauty, because of the halo of mystery that she always gave off, she was the most followed on the circuit in her time by both the tennis and sports press as by the specialized in matters of the heart. She drew many new fans to a sport for which they had previously shown no interest. If Björn Borg retired at the age of 26, tired of winning and without the courage to face the energy staged by John McEnroe, Gaby did so at the same age, surpassed by the significance that each step he took reached, whether it was playing tennis or without a racket in hand. Since his goodbye, he has selected a lot of his public appearances, he has not gone through marriage or motherhood. She, too, has never confirmed any of the mixed-sex couples attributed to her, she went to live in Switzerland as singer Tina Turner. I have to admit that the figure of Gabriela causes me tenderness and evokes the memory of good times for women’s and world tennis. I cannot help but share the joy that her desire to see her play again, in her country, and, if possible, in the company of Rafa Nadal, who I hope will grant the request, because she is asking for it out loud the one that for many fans around the planet was the figure that attracted them to tennis.