FORMER pro tennis player Gabriela Sabatini has traded in her racket for a two-wheeler.
The stunning brunette, best known for her heated matches against Steffi Graf in the early 90s, now has cycling on the brain.
“I love it,” she says. “I go at least three times a week.” While she still hits the courts occasionally, when it comes to getting her sweat on, Sabatini, now 37, prefers to do so while also taking in the sights of her beloved Buenos Aires. She spends several days a week either running in Palermo Park or biking the tracks of the Nuevo Circuito KDT velodrome.
Of course, she’s not always in athletic mode. After all, Sabatini retired from sports over 10 years ago and quite enjoys her long Argentine days and even longer nights. From seeing plays like “La Muerte de un Viajante” on Calle Corrientes, to 10 p.m. dinners at La Cabrera parrilla in Palermo SoHo, where she enjoys a rare Tira de Asado washed down with a nice Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon, Sabatini relishes in being a true porteÑa.
“The sommelier at the Park Hyatt Hotel is helping me to create my own bar and wine cellar in my home,” she says. This home, located in Buenos Aries’ hip Palermo Chico, is new for Sabatini, who used to live in a more residential part of the city called Villa Devoto, where she often indulged in a cup of dulce de leche granizado ice cream from Monte Olivia. But now she’s focused on decorating her new digs with antique furniture from San Telmo and modern paintings from artists based in La Boca.
“I just bought three paintings by Argentine artist Eduardo MacEntyre and his son Cristian,” she says. “I just love their work. Eduardo is very symmetrical and Cristian is doing a lot of modern paintings of tango dancers.”
Sabatini doesn’t visit many tango milongas herself, but she is adding Latin Dance to her fragrance collection this March. She prefers more casual social activities like sipping Earl Grey tea at Fresh Market in Puerto Madero, a quaint, waterfront neighborhood.
She also adores picking up books at the Ateneo “Grand Splendid” bookstore in Recoleta.
“I find it nice to just go there,” says Sabatini. “It’s quite well-known and beautiful.”
Her Argentinean neighbors might say the same about her.