Motivation Quote by Gabriela Sabatini

Sabatini is narrating a match, but the real story is about agency: the instant an athlete stops reacting and starts imposing. The quote’s plainness is the point. No mythmaking, no metaphors, just a sequence of pressure points: down a set, a tight second, then a pivot into “this aggressive game.” In tennis-speak, “aggressive” isn’t just hitting harder. It signals a philosophical choice - take time away, shorten points, accept risk, refuse the slow bleed of “close” games that can feel like waiting for the other person to decide your fate.

The telling slip is “I surprised them.” Not “her,” but “them” - the opponent, the crowd, the commentators, maybe even her own corner. That plural hints at how a top match becomes a social event with a consensus forming in real time: Fernandez is ahead, Sabatini is on the back foot, the script is set. Sabatini’s aggression isn’t only tactical; it’s narrative sabotage. She changes the texture of the match so quickly that the collective expectation lags behind what’s happening on court.

There’s also an understated self-portrait here: confidence expressed as experimentation. “I started” suggests a conscious switch rather than a lucky streak, as if aggression is a lever she can pull. The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the idea that momentum is mystical. For Sabatini, momentum is manufactured - by choice, by nerve, by the willingness to look wrong for a few points in order to be uncatchable later.