Chris Evert d. Gabriela Sabatini - 1985 Family Circle Cup (Tennis Birth of Sabatini) 

shihlin1 me too!!!!!

One problem she had was the Paris clay was faster than the Rome clay and the Florida clay tournaments. Hence why she often beat Graf and Seles at those but always lost to both at the French.

@@grantdesjardins764 I don't think clay speed are dissimilar, except Har-Tru and whatever blue clay they used in Madrid many years ago. Clay speed are, IMO, about general conditions of the day. Dry and hot speed is fast. Cold and wet speed is slow.

+J Gregory Your are right of course. Evert said that one of the problems with playing Gabby, was finding a hitting partner to practice with the day before. She said, "I can find a lefty before I play Martina, but nobody hits the ball quite like Gabriella does'

J Gregory witty remark

Absolutely - and it was one of the major problems Chris Evert had with Sabatini in later years. Chris had learned her tennis in the 60s with wooden racquets. Her stroke mechanics involved backing off the ball, letting it drop to waist height and planting her feet. That's suicide against high bouncing, heavy topspin. In some of their later matches you can see Gabi drag Chris all round the court and way behind it, because Chris cannot step in and take the ball on the rise before the topspin bites. There was one famous point too at the US open when Monica Seles hit a high bouncing, topspin shot and Chris moved so far back that she ended up against the stands and the ball bounced over her head.

Steffi Graf would have 🎉

​@@8020Alive 😉🤗

@William Felton I completely agree. I think that Wimbledon Final in 1991, against Graf, where she twice served for the match, and couldn't close it out......I think that "damaged" her psychologically, from thus, she never quite fully recovered (in my humble opinion), and her confidence, from then on, was always "shaky". She never again reached a Grand Slam Final after that. She had an amazing and complete repertoire of shots, but she would have benefitted greatly from having a sports psychologist, as do many female players have today. Her shots were not the problem, but her psyche was.

​@@bachatamusica She'd had quite a history before that of losing big matches when ahead. For example, she lost to Graf in the 1987 French semi after being up 5-3 in the final set. At the 1989 Canadian Open, she lost to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario after being up 6-3, 5-1 and match point. For me, the match that really killed Gabby's attempt to get to the top was her loss to Seles at the 1992 French open after serving for 5-2 in the final set. She was never a challenger at the grand slams again after that. After she retired, it came to light that she suffered from a specific kind of anaemia that often left her debilitated. She also she said that she was so shy and introverted that she deliberately threw some matches because she hated being in the limelight so much. I think she was also hampered by not having a really big weapon to win points with. A lot of her game was based around inducing errors from her opponents, and when she really needed to take control, she didn't have the weapons to do it.

@@zeddeka I agree. Very good breakdown of Gaby's game. Her serve, especially her second serve was a big liability in her game. At times, her second serve, clocked in at less than 60 mph. I remember once, Bud Collins was commentating at one of her matches, and he said that it was a "cream puff". Another memorable match that her game "broke down" was at the '93 Roland Garros, where she had a seemingly commandable lead, up 6-1, 5-1, on Mary Joe Fernández, but somehow managed to lose the match. It must have been torture for her, to put in almost 4 hours on the terre battue de Paris, and lose it. It was defintely a heartbreaker for Sabatini fans.

Worth noting too that this was actually Sabatini's third match she had played that day due to rain delays affecting the tournament earlier in the week and creating a backlog in matches. She was absolutely exhausted.

And she won the WTA Championship ("Masters") two times!

Bud is always creaming in his pants haha but yes that point is really good - signature point by GS

my daughter and all her friends are 14 - not one looks like or is built like this - you may have something here

RedTopBear are u implying she is lying

J no country lies about their age in professional sports ever so why would Gabby....What is to gain from it?!?!?

Those Argies also lie about the earth being round... She totally looks 14 to me. My dark-haired daughter at 14 didn't look dissimilar. Amazing that you can suggest, with no evidence whatsoever, she lied about her age for no obvious benefit.

I think during 1985 (1986?) she got to #4 during the year...never finished that high, though.

I wouldn't liken Sabatini to Kournikova. Sabatini is head and shoulders above Kournikova. She's always been serious about her game. Kournikova had 0 title, Sabatini had 27 Singles Titles, Sabatini also won most of the highest level regular events on the women's tour including Miami and Rome (four times), in both 1991 and 1992, she won 5 tournaments for the first half of the year beating Seles and Graf in the finals. If those, or the drastic game change she took to win at the net to beat graf at the 1990 US Open, do not show serious commitment to the game, I dont know what does.

I thought it is well known by now that she is a lesbian.