US Open: a 30 años del día que le cambió la vida a Gabriela Sabatini y la convirtió en leyenda

It was 30 years ago. Antes de las cuatro en la tarde del sábado 8 de septiembre de 1990, en el (viejo) estadio Louis Armstrong del US Open, Gabriela Sabatini’s vida cambia para siempre. Gaby beat Steffi Graf 6-2, 6-6, 6-4 in the tie break. She is loved all over the world. El servicio fue al cuerpo de la leyenda alemana, que golpeó de drive y fue hacia adelante buscando la red, pero la esfera amarilla sacudió la faja y se elevó perdiendo fuerza; Gaby pudo pensar bien dónde tirar y golpeó un passing de derecha tan adecuado al fleje izquierdo de Graf que ésta tardó un momento en responder. So Sabatini, who was sure that the shot had been good, jumped, raised his arms, and fell down. In that New York afternoon, Sabatini won the Flushing Meadows trophy, which was his only Major. He holds a special place in the history of national tennis for having won a Grand Slam in singles, along with Guillermo Vilas, Gastón Gaudio, and Juan Martín del Potro.For Osvaldo Sabatini and Beatriz Garófalo’s daughter, that wasn’t an easy season. Some people, without reason, asked him about his lack of internal fire. “They put me down a lot. “When I got to the country, I read some reviews and couldn’t figure out why they were mean to me,” Gaby explained later. That year, the Argentinian won the Boca Ratón and then, after losing in the eighth round of Roland Garros, made a huge decision: she switched coaches. He stopped working with the Spanish Ángel Giménez and connected with the Brazilian Carlos Kirmayr. Kirmayr reached Gaby through his director, Dick Dell. They met a few days before Wimbledon, and during the interviews at the Hurlingham Club, the coach told her to be more aggressive. In the British Cup, Sabatini made it to the semifinals. Before getting a spot in New York, he didn’t have a lot of success. He lost in the semifinals of Montreal and in the eights of the Los Angeles final. But the explosion happened a day later in Flushing