Gabriela Sabatini plays Roland Garros: why she’s shy and the place she doesn’t want to go back to

On June 6, 1995, Gabriela Sabatini played her last professional match against Roland Garros. That season, she arrived in Paris as the eighth seed and well advanced to the quarterfinals, losing a clear 6-1 6-0 to second-seeded Steffi Graf. This Tuesday, 27 years later of that duel against the German, who at the same time was her main rival and her great partner in doubles, the Buenos Aires woman will once again tread the Parisian brick dust, holding a racket, to debut in Tournament of Legends of the French Grand Slam, with Gisela Dulko.

Very early appointment: at the first turn of the stadium of Suzanne Lenglen, the second in importance of the Bois de Boulogne complex, at 6 am (Argentina time, 11 local time). Your rivals? The Americans Lindsay Davenport Y Mary Joe Fernandeztwo former world top 5 and Grand Slam champions.

“Everyone was so good. I think what I’m most excited about is meeting some players again. I haven’t seen most of them since I stopped playing,” he said. ESPN Sabatini, 52 years old.

The Argentine, who participated on Monday in the presentation of the contest with Dulko (“With Gisela we were all produced and there were some diver girls, we were a little embarrassed,” he commented with a laugh.), admitted that at first he was not convinced to play again in Paris.

“With Gise we started to train and play paddle tennis. The organizers saw us. They must have seen us well (laughs) and they invited us to play. At first they gave it to me. quite nervousI’m not too sure, ”she acknowledged.

And he added: “The most nervous thing to me is back to the environment, because I feel it belongs to the past and to mix again with tennis players … I don’t mind going to the locker room, for example. I haven’t been there yet and I don’t know if I’m going. I feel like I don’t matter, I feel. “

Gaby removed the curtain on her career in 1996, when she was just 26 years old. As he said before he returned to court, he felt “tired”. And for a long time, he never played tennis again. So when he picked up the racket again to start preparing for this tournament, he realized it was a bit “rusty”.

“After my retirement I was quite disconnected from tennis for years, I didn’t play it, I didn’t go to tournaments. I needed to get away, not tennis itself had exhausted me, but the environment. So these last days “I’m training, I’m a little spent. Because after a few years, your head tells you one thing and your body, another,” he was honest.

“A lot happens to me that I lose the ball,” he added. “Tennis is very difficult, coordinating everything … And the smash was the most difficult thing to recover,” she added, amused.

Although more than his humility, he will surely come ready for his debut. Since he had just received an invitation to play a tournament, he had already begun to recover his feelings with the racket.

In February, days after witnessing the return of Juan Martín Del Potro to Buenos Aires ATPhe was seen training with Dulko on Racket Club. And in April, after traveling to Buenos Aires to attend Davis Cup matches against Belarus in BALTC and in Miami Openworked a few days at mercedes peacehis great companion from the early days of tennis and current captain of the Argentine team of the Billie Jean King Cup.

Within days, in addition, he began training on the courts of Roland Garros with his partner for this event, another great in the history of national tennis, former world number one in doubles and winner of the Australian Open in the modality that.

Dulko, 37 years old and retired since 2012, shared a video on his social networks where they are seen rallying with Italians. Flavia Pennettaformerly with tigrense, and francesca schiavone.

What Gaby didn’t need for the contest was to get in shape. A fan of various sports, the former number three in the world does not sit and lives a very active life, which is why he is very good on the physical level.

“I’ve always enjoyed doing sports and running. When I left tennis, I ran three hours, five hours … Pretty crazy. In Buenos Aires, I ran 50 kilometers a day. Then I did some stages of the cycling Tour de France. II dedicated myself to doing those things that I still enjoy today, although not to that level of madness. They are my cable to the ground, “said the honoree on Sunday at the Argentine Embassy in Paris.

In his short career – he made his professional debut in 1985 and dropped his racket in 1996 – Sabatini won 27 titles, including the US Open in 1990 and the WTA Tour Championships (now the WTA Finals, equivalent to the ATP Masters Tournament) in 1988 and 1994. In addition, he won a silver medal in Seoul Olympics 1988. He also had a unique career in doubles, where he became fifth in the rankings and was crowned at Wimbledon in 1988 along with Graf.

But he was unable to win a professional title at Roland Garros, where he was junior champion in 1984. In that “big,” he reached the semifinals five times in singles and three times was a finalist in doubles. Will he give himself to pleasure now 2022, at 52 years old and 26 after his retirement, to lift the trophy in Paris?

A contest of great stars.

The tables of the Roland Garros Legends Tournament are full of names who have risen to fame on courts around the world and made history in world tennis. Enough to see, for example, the duo that will clash with Sabatini and Dulko in their debut, in a Group A match of women’s competition.

The Argentines will come first Lindsay Davenport (45 years old), former world number one and champion of the US Open 1998, Wimbledon 1999 and Australia 2000 in singles, and Mary Joe Fernandez (50), who occupied the 4th step of the ranking, was a singles finalist in the French “big” in 1993. Together, the Americans won the doubles title in this tournament in 1996.

The French will play in the same venue Tatiana Golovin (34 years old), tournament champion in doubles in 2004, and Nathalie Tauziat (54), dating top 3; and Croatian VAT Majoli (44), who reached fourth in the rankings and won in Paris in 1997, along with another local, Mary Pierce (47), who won the trophy in 2000.

Group B will feature Czech Martina Navratilova (65), former number one and two -time Roland Garros champion, Italian Schiavone (41), title winner in 2010, and Pennetta (40), who reached the top. of the ranking of doubles, the Americans Rennae Stubbs (51) at Chanda Rubin (46), the Slovak Daniela Hantuhova (39), the Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva (47) and the French Sandrine Testud (fifty).

After the round robin, the winners of the two zones will meet in the final, next Saturday.

In the men’s box, names like Cypriot stand out Mark BaghdatisSwedish Mats Wilanderthe Croatian Goran Ivanisevicthe German tommy haas and the French Guy Forgot, Henri Leconte, santoro factory Y Arnaud ClementAmong others.