WHAT HAPPENED EXACTLY: SABATINI LOSES BIG LEAD
On this day, March 23, 1995, in the Miami Open semi-finals, world No 7 Gabriela Sabatini suffered a shocking loss against Kimiko Date. After she blew a 6-1, 5-1 lead, the Argentine missed three match points before being defeated, 1-6, 7-6, 7-6.
Kimiko Date, from Japan, born in 1970, began her career in 1988 and she broke into the top 100 two years later, in 1990. She reached her first final on the Tour in 1991, in Los Angeles, where she was defeated by world No 1 Monica Seles, 6-3, 6-1.
Date’s career took off in 1992, when she claimed her first title, in Tokyo, defeating Sabine Appelmans in the final (7-5, 3-6, 6-3). In 1993, she reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the US Open (defeated by Manuela Maleeva, 7-5, 7-5). In 1994, she finished the year in the top 10, reaching the Australian Open semi-finals (lost to Steffi Graf, 6-3, 6-3) and claiming the title in Sydney and Tokyo.
Defeated in the US Open quarter-finals by Arantxa Sanchez (6-3, 6-0), she was world No 9 at the end of 1994.
Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian legend
Gabriela Sabatini, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was born in 1970. Successful at a very young age, she became the youngest player to reach the semi-final at Roland-Garros in 1985, where she was defeated by Chris Evert (6-4, 6-1).
In the following years, Sabatini, displaying a beautiful one-handed backhand, established herself in the top 10, reaching the semi-final at Wimbledon in 1986 (lost to Martina Navratilova), and two more times at the French Open in 1987 and 1988, each time defeated by Steffi Graf. In 1988, in Boca Raton, she was the first of only two players to beat Graf (2-6, 6-3, 6-1), and at the US Open, she finished runner-up to the same Graf (6-3, 3-6, 6-1).
Sabatini climbed as high as world No 3, in 1989. That year, she lost to Graf in the semi-finals at both the Australian and the US Open, but in 1990, at Flushing Meadows, she eventually beat the German to claim her first and only Grand Slam title (6-2, 7-6). In 1991, at Wimbledon, she played a last major final (lost to…Graf, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6), and since then, she had remained a solid top 10 player, reaching the semi-finals in Grand Slam tournaments no less than seven times, the last time at the 1994 US Open (lost to Arantxa Sanchez, 6-1, 7-6).
