By Bruce Emond
Sabatini runs risk of becoming popular has-been
JAKARTA (JP): Gabriela Sabatini, one of the world's most photographed and photogenic women, is a sponsor's dream.
Tall, svelte, with finely sculpted features and an easy smile, the 24-year-old Argentinean is untiringly gracious as she poses for numerous pictures and exchanges small talk as sponsors as officials fete one of the queens of women's tennis at an evening reception here before two exhibition matches against Indonesian number one Yayuk Basuki last week.
"May I have a picture with you, Gaby?," another guest asks and Sabatini kindly obliges, sandwiching her imposing physical presence into a long line of smiling guests. Sabatini beams as the photographer clicks away.
Sabatini's talented play has earned her more than US$7.5 million since she burst onto the women's circuit as a 14-year- old, but it is her good looks and friendly disposition which has increased her income at least four-fold through endorsements for products ranging from sunglasses to perfume, clothing to camera film.
Even today, with her ranking sliding after a nearly three-year drought without a tournament title and a string of embarrassing losses in major tournaments to players ranked hundreds of places below her, Sabatini continues to pile up endorsement contracts.
In person, the Buenos Aires native appears much taller than the 173 cm (5 7") listed in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) media guide. Her height is enhanced by a striking physique. Sabatini is very big, although she has lost the chunkiness which spurred one German magazine to scurrilously insinuate that it was more than just good nutrition and weight training which accounted for her rapid physical development.
Huge, clothes-hanger shoulders taper down to a slim waist and long legs, a body which has led tennis hacks all over the world to dub her the "Amazon from Argentina."
There is a distinct asymmetry in the definition of her limbs, the tangible badge worn by all the world's top players. Her right arm, the one she has used to groove her looping topspin groundstrokes and sliced backhands since the age of seven, is markedly larger than her left, the veins standing out like live wires.
Genuine
It is difficult to write anything unkind about Sabatini. She seems genuinely courteous and sweet, answering each and every question with a gleaming smile on her face.
But her answers read like carefully scripted sound bites. "It is great to be here in Jakarta. I will play my very best," she says at the opening press conference to a group of clamoring journalists, most of whom seemed to view Yayuk as a minor player in the Sabatini extravaganza.
One-on-one interviews with Sabatini were not forthcoming. "We would have to approve that with her agent in Washington, and the time difference is so great that it would be very difficult to contact him," says the agent handling the exhibition. "We have to take care of Gabriela and make sure she doesn't get abused."
Abused seems an unusual choice of words to describe a request for a 10-minute interview with a player who is receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars to play two exhibition matches. The point is made that it is the unapproachability of the top players and perceptions that tennis is big business careening out of control that has turned many spectators away.
"Gaby had an agreement to do one interview and she did that already with the TV station," the agent responds curtly. "Perhaps if your publication had contacted us earlier about giving us some advertising space we could have worked this out."
Rumors
Sabatini's inaccessibility to the media does little to dispell rumors that she is not very bright, the insinuations fueled by other players and reporters which have hounded her for years.
Part of the problem may be attributed to Sabatini's early difficulties in mastering English, or the fact that she left school at the age of 13 and never continued her education, or just plain jealousy.
Another factor may be that she is too easy-going, lacking the intensity of the other top women.
While Sabatini is content to discuss her love of music or clothes in press conferences, Steffi Graf will painstakingly deliberate on weightier matters, breaking down in one interview as she told of stopping her courtesy limousine to get out and hand some money to a homeless man begging on the street.
Graf and Sabatini were once touted as the tennis rivals of the 1990s, to match those other legendary rivalries between Margaret Smith Court and Billie Jean King in the 1970s and the epic matches between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in the 1980s.
Flowing style
With her flowing style, the teenage Sabatini was compared to Maria Bueno, the brilliant Brazilian serve-and-volleyer of the 1960s. But the expected rivalry and Sabatini's full talents have never developed. Graf completed a Grand Slam and amassed a lopsided win record over the Argentinian in the process.
Except for one Grand Slam victory over Graf in the U.S. Open final in 1990 and a close run in the final of Wimbledon the following year, Sabatini has become a perennial semifinalist.
Today, she travels the circuit from tournaments to lucrative exhibitions, adored all over the world but unable to string together enough victories to win a major tournament.
It may be appropriate, and perhaps a little cruel, to describe Sabatini today as a has-been. She brings in the crowds, delights them with her graceful play, but is not considered a real threat to the top players.
Unless she can regain the form and desire of 1990, Sabatini may find herself relegated to the role of a well-paid traveling entertainer for the rest of her career.