Our pic of the day is one of my favorite female tennis players. Gabriela Sabatini still looks good:

Copyright Getty Images

That’s the former 1990 U.S. Open champion who was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006 at the recent men’s final between Nikolay Davydenko and Rafael Nadal in Key Biscayne last weekend. Davydenko won the match in straights also beating Andy Roddick after his big quarter win over Roger Federer.

Sabatini was always really good looking and was my first tennis crush. Who didn’t fantasize about the beautiful gal from Argentina? She also was a pretty good tennis player who just came along at the wrong time when Steffi Graf was dominating the game. Sabatini’s signature shot was her one-handed backhand. Still one of the prettiest backhands the game’s ever seen.

Her upset win over Graf in 1990 here in NYC turned out to be Sabatini’s only grand slam singles title. She did reach a couple of other finals including 1991 Wimbledon where Gabby fell in a close three set battle to Graf 4-6, 6-3, 6-8.

Sabatini’s career best ranking on the WTA tour was No.3 that same year in which she won five titles but ultimately fell short of reaching No.1 in the world.

She still had a pretty good career and did alright off the court releasing successful perfume lines. Ya think this helped the cause  much?

An oldie but goodie: