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Gabriela Sabatini (b. May 16 1970, in Buenos
Aires, Argentina) is a former professional tennis
player from Argentina. She was one of the leading
players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s
and early-1990s. She won the women's singles title
at the U.S. Open (tennis)|US Open in 1990, the
women's doubles title at Wimbledon
Championships|Wimbledon in 1988, and a Silver
Medal at the 1988 Olympic Games.

Sabatini first came to the tennis world's
attention as a brilliant junior player. She
started playing tennis at the age of 6, and won
her first tournament at age 8. In 1983, aged 13,
she became the youngest player to win the Orange
Bowl 18s in Miami, Florida. She won six major
international junior titles, including the French
Open girls' singles, and was ranked the World No.
1 junior player in 1984.

In 1985, aged 15 years and 3 weeks, Sabatini
became the youngest-ever player to reach the
semi-finals at the French Open, where she lost to
Chris Evert. She won her first top-level singles
title later that year in Tokyo.

In 1988, Sabatini reached her first Grand Slam
(tennis)|Grand Slam singles final at the US Open.
In the final she faced Germany's Steffi Graf, who
had won three previous three Grand Slam events
that year and was looking to complete the set.
Sabatini put up a brave fight, but Graf was not to
be denied and won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Sabatini was
selected to represent Argentina in the Olympic
Games in Seoul that year, and carried the
country's flag in the opening ceremony. She won
the Silver Medal in the women's singles
competition. In the final she faced Graf (bidding
to turn her Grand Slam into what the media had
dubbed a "Golden Slam") and lost 6-3, 6-3.
Sabatini teamed-up with Graf to win the women's
doubles title at Wimbledon that year. And she also
won 1988's year-end WTA Tour Championships.

Sabatini's next Grand Slam final came in 1990,
where she again faced Graf in the final of the US
Open. This time Sabatini siezed her opportunity
and beat Graf in straight sets 6-2, 7-6. She also
beat Graf in the semi-finals of the Tour
Championships that year, but lost in the final to
Monica Seles in the event's first-ever five-set
final 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Sabatini had a strong start to 1991, winning five
tournaments in the first half of the year. She
reached her third Grand Slam singles final at
Wimbledon that year, and yet again faced Graf. In
an epic final, Graf eventually prevailed 6-4, 3-6,
8-6, despite the fact that Sabatini served for the
match on more than one occasion. Sabatini reached
her career-high singles ranking of World No. 3
that year, and came agonizingly close to attaining
the No. 1 ranking but was narrowly denied by Graf
and Seles – all three players' rankings were
within a few points of each others' for much of
the year.

After winning five tournaments in 1992, Sabatini
had a 29-month drought in which she failed to win
any titles. She brought this run to a dramatic end
at the WTA Tour Championships in 1994, and then
followed this up by winning her first tournamament
of 1995 at Sydney (defeating Lindsay Davenport in
the final of both events). But that proved to be
the last singles title of Sabatini's career.

Sabatini retired from the professional tour in
1996, having won 27 singles titles and 12 doubles
titles. 

Sabatini launched her own perfume, simply named
Gabriela Sabatini, in 1989. Since retiring from
competitive tennis, she has launched further
perfume lines. In 1992, a red orange fiery rose
was named the "Gabriela Sabatini Rose" in her
honour.  In 1994, the 'Great American Doll
Company' created a doll in Sabatini's likeness,
dressed in tennis clothes.


==External links==

*wta|id=190001|name=Gabriela Sabatini
*http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/7208/Tennis_St
atistics.html Gabriela Sabatini tennis statistics
- unofficial
*http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~yangzw/gabysta.html
Gabriela Sabatini - career highlights
*http://www.gabriela-sabatini.com Official site
for Sabatini's perfume business