Perfumes, early retirement and a fierce rivalry: What happened to Gabriela Sabatini?

As far as Argentine tennis legends go, there is no one greater than Gabriela Sabatini. The Buenos Aires native made her country proud in the 1980s and 1990s, when she was one of the best female tennis players in the world. This is Sabatini's story.

Sabatini, born 16 May 1970, took up tennis when she was six and won her first tournaments two years later.

She had an outstanding junior career, winning the French Open in singles and the US Open in doubles.

Sabatini finally turned pro in 1985 and immediately made her presence felt in the circuit.

In her first year, she reached the semi-finals of the French Open, where she was defeated by legend Chris Evert.

That same year, she claimed her first ever WTA Tour singles title in Tokyo, Japan.

Sabatini also burst into the top 10 that year and was awarded the WTA Newcomer of the Year award. At that point, the sky was the limit for the Argentine.

The year after, she made her mark at Wimbledon, where she advanced to the semi-finals, but fell at the hands of Martina Navratilova.

In 1987, Sabatini continued her good form. She reached another semi-final at the French Open and played in the final of the WTA Tour Championships. On both occasions, it was Steffi Graf who defeated her.

In 1988, Sabatini took her career to the next level at the US Open.

She fought her way to her first-ever Grand Slam final. However, she lost to Graf, with whom she fought many fierce battles and won Wimbledon in doubles that same year.

That same year, Sabatini represented Argentina at the Summer Olympics in Seoul. She did so successfully, winning a silver medal after losing to ... Graf, that's right.

Sabatini then finished the year in style by winning the WTA Tour Championships.

Her good performances in 1989, with several tournament wins and two Grand Slam semi-finals, allowed her to reach a career-high ranking of world No. 3.

After suffering an injury at the Australian Open in 1990, Sabatini crept back up. She reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon and, more importantly, won her first and only major of her career at the US Open by beating Steffi Graf. It was the biggest triumph of her career.

In her career, Sabatini amassed Grand Slam semi-finals and played three singles finals. The last of these was at Wimbledon in 1991, where she lost to good old Steffi Graf.

In her career, Sabatini won a total of 27 singles titles and 14 doubles titles, earning $8,785,850 in prize money according to wtatennis.com.

As you can read, Sabatini had a great rivalry with Steffi Graf during her career. The German beat her rival very often, although Sabatini has the honour of being the player who defeated Graf the most times during her career (11 times).

Nevertheless, Sabatini decided to end her career in 1996 at the age of just 26.

The tennis world recognises Sabatini's achievements for the sport. In 2006, she was added to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

In 2019, she also received the ITF's Philippe Chatrier Award for her achievements during and after her career.

Sabatini is currently focusing, among other things, on her perfume brand, a business she had already started when he was still playing.

In 1994, she published her autobiography, 'My Story'.

Since 2003, Sabatini has held Italian citizenship because her great-grandfather was born in Italy and later immigrated to Argentina.

These days, she still maintains an active lifestyle, as we can see on Instagram, where she regularly posts pictures of herself riding her bike or competing in tennis exhibitions.

Picture credit: Instagram, @sabatinigaby

Sabatini is now reportedly enjoying a quiet life in Switzerland, but is also said to have properties in her native Buenos Aires and Miami. Either way, wherever she goes, she will be remembered as the tennis champion she once was.