Gabriela Sabatini was born in Buenos Aires on 16 May 1970. She began playing at six and won her first tournament two years later. At 13 she left Argentina to train in the United States, and in 1983 she became the youngest player to win the Orange Bowl; a year later she was the world's No. 1 junior.
Her rise on the tour was just as fast. At 14 she reached the semifinals of the 1985 French Open, the youngest woman to do so at Roland Garros at the time, before losing to Chris Evert. Before turning 20 she had reached the semifinals of all four majors, a first for an Argentine woman. She played from the baseline with a heavy topspin forehand and a one-handed backhand, and she liked to start matches on the attack.
Her career ran alongside Steffi Graf's. They met 40 times, Graf winning 29, but they were also partners: in 1988 they won the Wimbledon doubles together. The same year Sabatini lost the US Open final to Graf, took the Olympic silver medal in Seoul after losing the final to her, and won the season-ending Virginia Slims Championships, beating Pam Shriver. In February 1989 she reached world No. 3, her career high.
Her greatest day came at the 1990 US Open. Coming to the net to attack Graf's short balls, she won the final 6–2, 7–6, saving two set points at 5–6 in the second set, for her only major singles title. In 1991 she lost the Wimbledon final to Graf 8–6 in the third set, and she won the Italian Open in 1991 and 1992, beating Monica Seles in the 1991 final. In 1994 she won the season-ending championships again, against Lindsay Davenport.
Sabatini won 27 singles and 14 doubles titles and announced her retirement in New York in October 1996, aged 26. Her fragrance line, launched in 1989 while she was still playing, grew into a business career in perfumes and cosmetics. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006, presented by Graf.