The Argentine duo beat Iva Majoli and Mary Pierce 6-4 and 6-1 in their third performance in Paris
Sabatini and Dulko go for a another triumph at Roland Garros (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Gabriela Sabatini and Gisela Dulko want to be finalists of the Tournament of Legends that takes place in Roland Garros. But for that, they had to beat the duo that make up the Croatian in their third performance in Paris.Iva Majoli (44 years old) and France’s Mary Pierce (47) and wait for the last match of Group A to decide if they advance to next Saturday’s definition. That’s how they did it: the Argentineans won 6-4 and 6-1 and now they will have to wait to find out if they will be in the last match of the competition.
The Argentines were solid in the first quarter. Manage to break the hosts’ service in the third game and in the defining moments Gaby’s hand appeared on the net to match the actions (4-4) and, in the next game, volley to win the point and to take advantage of 5-4 and keep the initial set.
The second set was all for the Sabatini/Dulko duo. They quickly managed to break Majoli/Pierce’s serve and headed for a win without much trouble. The Argentines finished with 27 winnersagainst only 9 of their rivals, and they also improved in unforced errors compared to their previous loss: they had 12.
How will the definition be to know if Gabriela and Will Gisela be in the final on Saturday? With the victory of this day, they were in first place in the ranking of their group with 5 points obtained, advantage of sets won and lost (+2) and a +9 difference in games. Behind the girls are Davenport and Fernández, who today beat Golovin/Tauziat 6-0/6-1. With that victory, they finished with a record of 5 points, +1 in sets and +2 in games.
This Friday, the French will face off against Majoli-Pierce and they will have to beat them to generate a triple tie at the top of the zone and then see what defines the organization.
Sabatini once again showed all his category in Paris (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
In their first two meetings in Group A of the competition, the Argentine pair showed flashes of great tennis. In the premiere, it was a victory against the representatives of the United States, Lindsay Davenport and Mary Joe Fernandez, by a double 6-3. In what was the return of the former number 1 in Argentine women’s tennis, they got 35 winning shots, against the seven that the American duo reached. What’s more, they made only 16 unforced errors with Gisela.
Already in the second match, which like the first was played at the Suzanne Lenglen < b>lost to locals Tatiana Golovin and Nathalie Tauziat 6-4, 6-4. Both Gaby and Dulko had problems with the serve (they committed 10 double faults between them) and 37 unforced errors, almost twice as many as the French (19).
Despite the defeat, the 52-year-old former professional tennis player once again showed all her category with touches on the net and even managed to add a point from the serve, which she celebrated together with her partner. It should be noted that Gisela, who used to be number 1 in the world in doubles together with the Italian Flavia Pennetta -she is also playing at Roland Garros-, had great individual actions in the net.
Group B includes the historic Martina Navratilova (65), former number one and two-time champion at Roland Garros, the Italians Schiavone (41), winner in Paris in 2010 , and Flavia Pennetta (40), former No. 1 in doubles. They are also Rennae Stubbs (51) and Chanda Rubin (46), from the USA; the Slovak Daniela Hantuchova (39), the Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva (47) and the French Sandrine Testud (50).
< p class=”paragraph”>The winning couples from each zone will advance to the grand final, which will be played next Saturday.