The Argentine duo will face the Italian duo made up of Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone this Saturday in the third round of the Suzanne-Lenglen court
< i class=”i-share-btn email”>
Gabriela Sabatini and Gisela Dulko will try to win the title in the tournament of legends (Photo: AP )
Gabriela Sabatini and Gisela Dulko will play the final of the legends tournament at Roland Garros against the Italians Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavonein a duel that will take place in the third turn of the court Suzanne-Lenglen after two other matches of the legends contest but for men.
The Argentines won two matches and they lost one in the group stage, but finally the organization confirmed that they will play the defining duel this Saturday not before 10AM(Argentina time). Two men’s clashes of legends will take place beforehand: the doubles of the Belgian Xavier Malisse and the Swedish Mats Vilander will run into the locals Mansour Bahrami and Julien Benneteau. At the end, the duo of the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and the Croatian Goran Ivanisevic will take the field against the French Sebastien Grosjean and Cedric Pioline.
At the age of 52, Sabatini decided to have official activity in the world of tennis after staying away from this type of exhibition for a long time and chose Dulko (37 years old) as her partner, with whom she maintains a close relationship despite not being contemporaries. “My first time playing tournament of legends. We started playing with Gise, training, playing paddle tennis and the organizers saw us. They must have seen us quite well and there they invited us to play. It gave me a bit of trouble at first, nerves”, Gaby had acknowledged days ago.
The truth is that the experience was satisfactory since they managed to beat the Americans in their debut Lindsay Davenport and Mary Joe Fernandez 6-3 and 6-3. Then they fell to the locals Tatiana Golovin and Nathalie Tauziat 6-4 and 6-4, but recovered with a good level against Croatian Iva Majoli and French Mary Pierce with a 6-4 and 6- 1 to advance to the definition.
Regardless of the fact that Golovin and Tauziat won their meeting this Friday with a 6-4 and 6-3 over Majoli and Pierce, it was finally Sabatini and Dulko those who advanced to the title clash. Their rivals will be the Italians who won their three Zone B matches: 6-4 and 6-1 against Daniela Hantuchova-Martina Navrátilová; 7-5 and 7-6 to Magdalena Maleeva-Rennae Stubbs; and to Chanda Rubin-Sandrine Testud for not showing up.
Argentina, moreover, will live an emotional day since from 6AM –in the first shift of the court Simonne-Mathieu–, the young Solana Sierra will try to win the junior title against the Czech Lucie Havlickova to try to match what Sabatini herself did in 1984 and Patricia Tarabini in 1986.