From 1986 until her five-month injury absence in 1996, Sabatini spent 508 consecutive weeks within the world's top 10. This remains the fourth longest top-10 streak among any player in WTA-tour history. She spent 312 of those weeks in the world's top five, and finished six consecutive seasons with a top-5 ranking. Sabatini reached the semifinal stage or better in Grand Slams on 18 occasions in singles and 14 times in doubles, and reached at least one grand slam singles semifinal for 11 consecutive years. She defeated the reigning world no. 1 on ten occasions (Graf seven times, Seles twice and Navratilova once) during her career.