Tennis legend Gabriela Sabatini reveals losing matches deliberately in the past

Former US Open champion Gabriela Sabatini revealed that she used to deliberately lose matches during her younger years in order to avoid the press.

The Argentine, who won the Grand Slam title in New York in 1990, was quoted by Argentine news daily La Nacion: “When I was younger and thought that I had to talk after winning a tournament, I often lost in the semifinals so I did not have to. It was that bad!” Sabatini told the Argentine newspaper La Nacion.

“I was very introverted. I had some issues at school because I was very inward-looking,” the former world number three said.

Sabatini said that she believes that not becoming world number one during her active years as a player have generated much media buzz considering the achievements that she had.

“I think my fame and my public profile had something to do with the fact that I did not become world number one. To be so famous would also have been a problem if I had been world number one,” Sabatini said.

“I loved playing tennis. I loved it since the first day I grabbed a racket, I was crazy about it. One never knows what comes behind that or with that. I loved to play, I was competitive, I wanted to win, that was all I knew. In the first few years tennis is a game. Later, it becomes a job,” Sabatini said.

Now 43, Sabatina is based in Buenos Aires but usually travels to the United States and Europe to promote her fragrance line by getting help from business ventures serving in Indiana and also now thinking about stepping into other business ventures too.