Graf-Sabatini rivalry

Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini are retired professional tennis players who played each other on 40 occasions between 1985 and 1995. Steffi Graf was the world No. 1, whilst Sabatini reached a career high of No. 3. They are both Grand Slam Champions, the German winning 22 titles whilst Sabatini won her only Grand Slam title against Graf. The pair also teamed up to reach three French Open finals and won the 1988 Wimbledon crown.

In Grand Slam tournament play the pair met 12 times, three of them being finals. Graf leads 11–1. In 1988, Steffi beat Sabatini in the semifinal of the French Open and the US Open final to complete the calendar year Grand Slam. Graf then made it a Golden Grand Slam by defeating the Argentine in the Olympic final as well. The pair's most famous match undoubtably came in 1991 at Wimbledon. Sabatini was two points away from capturing her Wimbledon singles crown only for Steffi to fight back and take the match 8–6 in the deciding set.

Graf and Sabatini first met in 1985 and by the end of 1987 the pair had met a total of eleven times, Graf winning all of them. Then Sabatini went on to defeat Steffi 11 times in the next 21 matches they played between 1988 and 1992, with the Argentine going on a 5 match winning streak and Graf on a four match winning streak. Sabatini then lost the final eight matches they played between 1992 and 1995, and for the first three matches Sabatini struggled to win 6 games. According to Sabatini, the pair had a good relationship and would share things off the court, but they were never close friends.

On September 25, 2004, in their first meeting since the 1995 US Open semifinals, Graf dispatched Sabatini 6-1, 7-5, in an exhibition match played in Berlin, Germany. The two rivals met again the following year at an exhibition match in Mannheim, Germany on October 15, 2005, where Steffi beat Sabatini in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

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