TENNIS : For Now, Sabatini Is Good Pitch/No Serve

She is 21, a multimillionaire, hits the ball with so much topspin you return it at the level of your chin, charges as if she has a credit card at the net and has a line of perfume named after her.

Other than that, Gabriela Sabatini is your run-of-the-mill defending U.S. Open champion, worth more than $4.5 million on the court and even more than that off it.

It is estimated that Sabatini will pick up more than $5 million this year in exhibitions, guarantees and endorsements.

“I’ve watched her grow from someone who literally couldn’t speak a word of English,” said Dick Dell, Sabatini’s agent at ProServ since the Argentine was signed at 14.

Now, Sabatini is particularly adept at speaking the language of economics. The Corporate Sabatini pitches such products as sunglasses, rackets, tennis clothes and shoes, watches, camera film, perfume and has a deal pending with a soft drink company.

There is no question that Sabatini’s value as a product pitcher increased with her victory over Steffi Graf in the U.S. Open final a year ago, which places Sabatini in an unfamiliar position.

Since she had never won a Grand Slam event before, she never has had to return to one as a defending champion.

“I feel pretty comfortable,” said Sabatini, who didn’t appear that way when she lost to then 112th-ranked Kimiko Date in the semifinals of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

With so much at stake, it’s sort of a bad time for a service break. In Sabatini’s case, her serve seems fractured.

Sabatini, Dell and coach Carlos Kirmayr said foot blisters that forced her to retire in a match Aug. 10 were of no consequence in her spotty play at Manhattan Beach, but Sabatini did not seem herself in her on-court movements, which were even slower than usual.

Not only did she walk extremely gingerly, her serve was almost completely ineffective, rarely exceeding radar clockings in the 60-m.p.h. range.

Could it be she was unable to push off? Sabatini said her bad feet didn’t affect her serve, which she claimed wasn’t a problem anyway.

However, Sabatini recorded only one ace at Manhattan Beach. In the Wimbledon final, she had none.

According to Dell, Sabatini is well aware of the shortcomings of her serve, and Kirmayr said he has had talks with Sabatini about the importance of hitting the ball hard.

“Are you going to start the point aggressive or defensive?” Kirmayr said. “It’s just a way her mind is looking at the serve at the moment. She is sometimes afraid of serving double-faults, so she prefers to put a slow first serve in than to deal with serving a double-fault.

“She gets a little bit conservative, (but) her whole game depends on her serve,” Kirmayr said. “Hopefully, it’s something temporary. Maybe she will remember her match with Lori (McNeil), who was climbing all over her serve.

“Sometimes (Sabatini) can get away with it, but to be top-top, she has to juice it up, hit it.”

Graf update: The new No. 1, Steffi Graf, is at last word undecided if she will be ready to play the U.S. Open after injuring her shoulder at Federation Cup in Nottingham, England, last month.

Graf suffered a torn tendon in her right shoulder while playing Patricia Hy during Germany’s Federation Cup match against Canada and returned home to Germany, where she is being treated by orthopedists.

According to Gerd Szepanski of RTL, a Cologne, Germany, television station, Graf is still having trouble hitting serves and overheads because of her shoulder.

Dog tales: It was busy week for Astro and Roland, the Yorkshire terriers who belong, respectively, to owners Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Roland visited the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles almost daily, spending most of his time in Sanchez Vicario’s leather bag, his head poking out of one end, lugged around by Arantxa’s mother.

Roland developed an ear infection and was feeling a little under the weather for a while but recovered nicely and was often seen lying in a docile position close to Sanchez Vicario.

However, Astro is a different story altogether.

Zoltan Seles, Monica’s brother, is not a big fan of Astro: “He is one weird dog.”

Named after the dog character in cartoon series, “The Jetsons,” Astro began the week by attempting a sky dive. Seles said Astro heard another dog barking outside the hotel room and nearly jumped off the balcony.

Seles grabbed Astro’s hind legs when he was halfway through the bars. “He’s not used to balconies,” Seles said.

Apparently, Astro isn’t used to strangers, either. Seles said Astro engaged in a reign of terror on the hotel housekeeping staff last week.

“He can eat anything in the whole room because they know he’s in there (and don’t want to go in),” Seles said. “He is just constantly mad.”

By the way, there was one ill-fated meeting arranged between Astro and Roland, which Astro quickly aborted when he tried to start a fight.

“My dog is impossible with anybody,” Seles said. “He doesn’t like any other dogs . . . except female dogs.”

House of cards: Baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards.

But tennis cards? For the first time, the sport of tennis is jumping into the sports card business. Here is a chance to put Andre Agassi in a plastic sheet.

Netpro, officially licensed by the Assn. of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Assn., has released a 100-card set of current stars, to be followed by a second series of 100 more cards.

Tennis Notes

When Michael Joyce, 18, of Holmby Hills, and Lindsay Davenport, 15, of Palos Verdes, each won the 18-and-under age group at the U.S. Tennis Assn. Nationals at Kalamazoo, Mich., they also earned wild-card entries into the U.S. Open. Joyce, who defeated Ivan Baron, 6-2, 6-2, 7-5, in the final, is turning pro at the Open. Davenport, 6 feet 2 and 115 pounds, also teamed with Nicole London of Palos Verdes to win the girls’ 18 doubles. . . . Other wild-card entries are Jimmy Connors, Rick Leach, Jim Pugh, NCAA champion Jared Palmer of Stanford, Bryan Shelton, Chuck Adams and Todd Martin.

The Southern California Sectional Championships of the USTA League Tennis Program will be played Friday through Sunday at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley. Thirteen championships will be decided by 25 men’s teams and 32 women’s teams competing in divisions ranging from 2.5 to 5.0 and open. Two teams that went to last year’s nationals in the 3.0 women’s and 3.5 men’s divisions are back in the sectional championships at higher levels. June Evans is the captain of the 3.5 women’s team from Los Caballeros and Thomas Gealy is the captain of the 4.0 team from Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach.