Sabatini: A Youth Is Serving

First you listen to the talk. Then you watch her play. You’re hooked. You’re in love. If you care for the game, if you have an appreciation for form, you can only wonder at this precocious teen-ager. You see stars.

You have seen the future of women’s tennis, and it is--it must be--Gabriela Sabatini.

She’s 15, going on 25. She’s already a cover girl in her native Argentina, and you can see dollar signs reflected in her smile. She plays with a verve, a style, an intelligence.

Gabriela, seeded 15th at Wimbledon, the youngest seeded player in the 100 or so years of this tournament, played her first match here Tuesday on Court No. 1 and won in three sets.

“You don’t look at her and say, ‘She can’t do this or she can’t do that,’ ” said Amanda Brown, her opponent. “She can do everything.”

Her coach says she will be No. 1. Martina Navratilova calls her gifted. Already Gabriela has made the semifinals in the French Open, the youngest semifinalist there ever.

A month past her 15th birthday and the world awaits her.

But is she walking into a trap?

Did anyone explain the dangers?

Must she go so fast so soon?

Shouldn’t she turn back while she can?

She left home at 13, dropped out of school at 14 and now lives in America with her coach at Key Biscayne, Fla., in a halfway house for tennis phenoms.

And should she survive that--would you want your daughter to follow the same uncertain road?--there is history with which to contend. There are the other phenoms.

There is Tracy Austin, whose career is threatened by injury. Andrea Jaeger, injured and maybe burned out. Kathy Rinaldi, promise unanswered. Pam Shriver, sometimes injured, sometimes burned out. Austin and Jaeger aren’t even at Wimbledon this year.

Who has come onto the tour so young and really made it?

“I know some people are concerned,” said Patricio Apey, her coach and mentor. “But she and I and her parents are not concerned. She loves tennis. She loves traveling.”

In the middle of a busy spring schedule, Gabriela went to Taiwan for an exhibition when she might have rested. This summer, after a busier schedule, she will probably play for the Miami Beach Breakers, a professional tennis team that Apey, her coach, coaches.

This spring, Apey was talking about ensuring that Gabriela’s schedule be kept manageable. This year, she has played in 19 of 26 weeks on four continents.

Some people are concerned.

The International Tennis Federation released a report Tuesday calling for a ban on women players on the pro tour under the age of 14 and limits for those under 16.

At 14, a player would be able to compete in only eight tournaments, four on the major tour. At 15, 12 tournaments and eight majors.

The report concluded: “In reaching its findings, the Commission found that there was cause for concern, that action must be taken to protect not only the children but also the future of the game and that the situation needs to be kept under constant review.”

Apey dissented, in large part, from that view.

He says she would be bored without top competition. “A girl that is talented should be able to play as many tournaments as she feels like,” he said.

He says that the young players who burn out are Americans, where the pressure is great, where in junior tennis there are fistfights among parents. In Argentina, he says it is different. Of course, Gabriela now lives in America. She has spent five weeks at home this year.

Some of the greats of tennis wonder what the rush is. During Tuesday’s rain delay, Navratilova and Billie Jean King were sitting with Gabriela. “The three generations,” as Navratilova described it.

“My advice to her is to take her time,” Navratilova said. “The tour will be there in 1995 like it is in 1985. Just take your time. You’ll enjoy it more. Realize there is life outside of tennis.

“I think that’s what happens to a lot of young kids. She’s out of school for a year. When the tennis stops, they’re like newborns.”

Apey says that Gabriela is taking time off from school, that she hasn’t quit. She’s taking a correspondence course. Apey does say, however, that she is behind on her studies. But he says it can work and points to Chris Evert Lloyd as an example.

Lloyd doesn’t fit. She stayed in school. She played big-time tennis at 16 but didn’t turn pro until 18.

Navratilova was a mature 16 when she started on the tour. She also stayed in school. She played for a month and came home for two months. She remembers the early days and the nerves and the strain.

“My very first day I pulled a stomach muscle because I was trying to serve too hard because I knew I needed a little extra. The doctor told me to get into a whirlpool. It took me five weeks to heal when it should have taken a few days because I kept playing. I lost early one week and it healed.”

Gabriela seems unfazed by it all. She answers questions quietly and her coach translates. She says: “This is all normal. I am getting used to it.” Apey says she enjoys the attention and the tennis.

But certainly, it isn’t a normal life, without school, mostly without parents. She lives with Apey and eight girls 14 to 18. Her days are full of tennis, two hours in the mornings, more hours in the afternoon. She has conditioning--also breakfast, lunch and dinner. For fun, she took out a minibike one day.

But more fun was Hilton Head in April when she played three matches on the final day, losing in the final to no less than Lloyd. She was still 14. More fun was Paris, when she went to the semifinals.

At Wimbledon, “I was a little nervous at first,” she said. “Little by little, I gained confidence.”

She lost the first set to Brown, 3-6. She won the next two, 6-3, 6-3. It was her second time ever on grass, but she charged the net like a young Billie Jean King. She powered her forehand past a surprised Brown.

“She oozes confidence,” Brown said afterward. “You only have to look at her to see she is mature beyond her years.”

She has all the shots. She is a budding beauty who has already been on the cover of seven magazines in Argentina.

She might have it all someday. If it holds together.