30 years after the attack on Monica Seles: the unforgettable gesture that Gaby Sabatini had after the attack

During the 80’s and 90’s, Gabriela Sabatini and Monica Seles they fought great battles within the WTA circuit, settled in the select group of the best tennis players in the world. The history was inclined towards the side of the European, whose statistics reflect that of 14 confrontations he prevailed in 11Although two of Argentina’s three victories came at the prestigious tournament in Rome, where she bested her in the 1991 and 1992 finals in straight sets.

However, outside of competition, both forged a great friendshipwhich had strengthened in one of the most delicate moments that the native of Novi Sad had to live.

April 30, 1993 It is a date that was recorded in the black history books of world tennis, after a Steffi Graf fan, blinded by envy at seeing Seles at the top of the ranking, went down the stairs of the venue, entered the court and stabbed the Serb in the back with a 13-centimetre-long knife while playing in the quarterfinals of the Hamburg tournament against Magdalena Maleeva.

Fortunately, the attack did not end in tragedy, although his attacker (Gunter Parche) had achieved his sporting mission. Wins, losses, promotions and relegations. Both tennis players competed for first and second place during that year, until finally Seles was going to fall from the first step without being able to recover it, two months after the attack. Graf dominated the circuit until February 1995.

It was a very tough time for the 19-year-old, and while most of her colleagues turned their backs on her, Gabriela Sabatini gave him unconditional support.

The show was to go on and, a week after the shocking episode, gerard smith (president of the WTA at the time), met with 17 of the top 25 players on the circuit during the tournament in Rome and proposed that they define, through a vote, if the ranking of Seles should be frozen during his absence for rehabilitation.

“The result was almost unanimous against protecting my ranking. All the players voted in the same line, with the sole exception of Gabriela Sabatini. I am disappointed that Steffi Graf has voted against it. We had cried together when I was in the hospital (after the attack)”, revealed Monica Seles in the book From Fear to Victory (From fear to victory) that he published in 1996.

With Seles out of competition for two years, as a result of the physical injuries (a wound three centimeters deep) but mostly psychological that caused the attack, the tennis player was never able to recover that first place in the ranking.

However, the relationship with Gaby lasted over time after that great gesture that the Buenos Aires native had had. By January 2015, in the preview of an exhibition match that the former tennis players were going to star in Madison Square Garden on the occasion of the commemoration of World Tennis Day, the Serbian spoke again about that moment.

“She was the only one who supported me, I appreciate her a lot. She thought as a person, not with the ranking, she did not think about the sponsors or the business. She is a different person from the rest of the players who were on tour. She is very human, she has values,” he said in a teleconference.

The color detail of that match was that Argentina, after six years without playing, managed to prevail over her friend 8-5 in a duel to a single long set. The match also meant a kind of rematch of the 1990 Masters final, won by Seles in New York.

But the public displays of affection on both sides were not going to end there. For February 2020the former world number 1 shared on her Twitter account Twitter an emotional photo.

With the famous theme TBT (back to the past), wrote: “With Gaby Sabatini in Buenos Aires 1990″to which she, seeing the physical change of 30 years, replied with a laugh: “Wow, we really were very trendy!”

The last crossing they had on social networks was for January of last yearwhen the Argentine shared with her more than 187 thousand followers an image of her receiving 2022. “Happy New Year Gaby. Your smile makes me happy”Monica wished him, while Sabatini replied: “Happy New Year to you! Lots of love always, I miss seeing you.”

Yes ok he said goodbye to sporting glory at a very young ageAfter suffering one of the most memorable attacks in sports, Monica Seles can now smile when she remembers the past and sees that she has won an unconditional friendship that has endured over time for more than three decades.

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