From dark years to recovery: can Argentine women’s tennis find another Sabatini?

Gabriela Sabatini took Argentine women’s tennis to the stratosphere.  A full-blown superstar from the late 1980s through the mid-90s, she reached the highest singles ranking ever for an Argentine player (World No. 3 in 1989) and won the country’s only Grand Slam women’s singles title. The sport is currently far from those heights.   At the 2026 Australian Open, top-ranked Argentine Solana Sierra, the only one in the singles main draw, lost in the opening round. At the 2025 Argentina Open, one of two WTA tournaments in the country, no local players made it past the third round. Despite this stark present, the data shows that Argentine women’s tennis has been making steady progress. The 2024 season wrapped up with three players in the top 100, the most in 17 years. But progress hit a hurdle in 2025, with rising prospects struggling to improve and good results far and few in between.  For former top-30-ranked Argentine tennis star and Argentina Billie Jean King Cup team captain Mercedes Paz, the sport is trending upwards after what she calls a “very dark period.” However, she cautions current players to use Sabatini’s legacy as a yardstick. “She’s a beacon, and I think it’s important to have those,” she told the Herald.  “But she’s also the summit of Argentine women’s tennis history. She was a Roland Garros semifinalist at 15. That’s not normal.” New opportunities The 2021 Argentina Open, the first WTA tournament to be played in the country, was a big milestone. And it came at a much-needed time: in that competition, all Argentine players had to be offered wildcards to enter the main draw because of their low rankings.  “The ranking system protects top-100 players,” said Paz. “It’s a very steep climb for players sitting between 250 and 150 in the rankings.” The Argentina Open — and the Tucuman Open, which debuted in 2025 — are the only two WTA tournaments played in the country. They are WTA 125-level events, meaning they are just outside the top-tier tour events. It provides local players with opportunities to compete for big points without the expense of travelling to Europe. Argentina does have a myriad of ITF-level tournaments, which are developmental competitions and entry points for younger players. Due to economic and infrastructure issues, Argentine women players have often lacked opportunities to grow beyond that level. Paz, however, thinks broader trends in women’s tennis show that the focus should also be on how players are formed and brought up. With over 60% of WTA tournaments played on hard courts, the traditional way of developing talent in Argentina — aimed at long rallies on slow clay courts — puts local players on the back foot. “Argentina doesn’t have much in the way of hard court infrastructure. We don’t have any national competitions on the surface,” she said.  “If you look at the top-10 players, serving and returning are the tools you make a difference with today,” Paz argued. “Developing a player’s groundstrokes on clay as we do now is great, but between 12 and 16 we need to add those hard court tools because they’re key.” A prohibitive investment A big part of the problem is the economic cost of developing a professional tennis player. From the time a player turns 12 and enters competition at the junior level, the cost of developing them into professional-level athletes by the time they’re 18 is around US$400,000, according to specialized press.  This makes the endeavor prohibitive for those who can’t secure sponsors and support.  In 2024, the Argentine Tennis Association (AAT) launched the Beca Galperín al Mérito (Galperín Merit Scholarship). Backed by MercadoLibre founder Marcos Galperín, it awards US$100,000 to the two players who earned the most points in the previous year (split 60-40 between them, based on who finished higher in a separate ranking).   The program, however, only takes into account points earned at ATP and men’s ITF World Tour tournaments, effectively barring women from contention.  Mercedes Paz (center) as the Argentina Billie Jean King Cup team captain in 2025, with Jazmín Ortenzi (left) and Julia Riera (right).Photo: AAT “We held 10 professional, international tournaments in Tucuman, and I can speak from experience that finding sponsors for women’s events is far trickier than for the men’s,” Paz said. The result is one where there’s an abundance of talent in the men’s tour — Argentina currently boasts eight top-100 players, including top-20 Francisco Cerúndolo — while women’s tennis is left behind at times. Efforts have been made to change that. In 2024, the AAT won the ITF Advantage All Silver Award for the growth in women’s tennis coaches, doubling the number of women participating in national coach development programs. But it won’t bear fruit immediately. Chasing concrete objectives When it comes to the road to getting Argentine women’s tennis back to the elite, Paz warns fans not to ignore the progress already made in moving out of “a very dark time for Argentine women’s tennis.” “When I took over in 2019, the top-ranked player was around 250th in the world. Now, we have 29 girls ranked within the WTA,” she said. Paz thinks the achievements of the generation that accompanied Sabatini, including herself, Bettina Fulco, Inés Gorrochategui, and Patricia Tarabini — all of whom went on to become top 30 players — perhaps aren’t valued enough as role models for current players. “We’re closer to that reality than another Sabatini,” said Paz. “Players dream of becoming top-10 before thinking of more concrete objectives like breaking through to the top 100. They set themselves objectives that are too far away, and that’s when it becomes frustrating to them.” She pointed to Solana Sierra, who broke through thanks to her Wimbledon heroics, as a valuable example for players chasing the same goals. “When you see someone achieve it who’s your peer, who played tournaments in South America with you, it becomes far more achievable.”