Gaby said afterwards that coming in to this tournament, she didnt have much confidence. Her lopsided loss to Arantxa at the Australian Open had really knocked her. She very nearly lost to Rachel McQuillan in the first round here (6-7, 7-6, 6-3) but it started the best run of her career. Of the first six tournaments she played following the Australian Open, she won 5 and was a finalist in the 6th.
And here it wasnt that bad! By 1992 she was completely spinning her first serve in like a second serve and had lost her ability and confidence to go up after the serve and really pronate.
She never got it right. When she altered her service action for a while in 1988 / 89 she got more power but her first serve percentage went through the floor. When Carlos Kirmayr took over coaching Gaby in 1990 he agreed with her that she should mainly focus on getting her first serve in. I'm not sure anything she tried with her serve ever really worked.
Gaby said afterwards that coming in to this tournament, she didnt have much confidence. Her lopsided loss to Arantxa at the Australian Open had really knocked her. She very nearly lost to Rachel McQuillan in the first round here (6-7, 7-6, 6-3) but it started the best run of her career. Of the first six tournaments she played following the Australian Open, she won 5 and was a finalist in the 6th.
The main problem of Sabatini's player
Was her serve. Weak and "lazy".
And here it wasnt that bad! By 1992 she was completely spinning her first serve in like a second serve and had lost her ability and confidence to go up after the serve and really pronate.
She never got it right. When she altered her service action for a while in 1988 / 89 she got more power but her first serve percentage went through the floor. When Carlos Kirmayr took over coaching Gaby in 1990 he agreed with her that she should mainly focus on getting her first serve in. I'm not sure anything she tried with her serve ever really worked.