Former World No. 1 tennis player Arantxa Sanchez Vicario says she is now broke and is giving half her earnings to a bank to avoid a prison sentence, after her ex-husband squandered her $41 million fortune. She made the claim in an interview with Spanish TV show "Universo Callejo," as quoted by The Sun.
"I fell blindly in love, and he really isn't the person I thought he was," she told the program.
In 2024, a Barcelona-based court found that Sanchez Vicario and her former husband, Josep Santacana, committed fraud by hiding assets to avoid a massive debt owed to Banque de Luxembourg. Santacana was sentenced to three years and three months in jail, while Sanchez Vicario received a two-year suspended sentence as a first-time offender. The former couple, who divorced in 2019, was also ordered to pay 6.6 million euros, or $7.5 million, in compensation.
Sanchez Vicario told "Universo Callejo" she knew nothing of her husband's financial dealings. "I focused on playing tennis and never handled my own financial affairs because I didn't know how," she said, according to The Sun. "I trusted my husband... And the [36 million euros] vanished. I was left to shoulder the entire burden."
How she avoided prison
Accounts vary on how Sanchez Vicario has stayed out of jail. The Athletic reported in 2024 that it is customary in Spain for first-time offenders sentenced to two years or less to have their prison terms suspended. But she told "Universo Callejo" it was a financial arrangement with the bank that kept her free.
"I did not go to jail because I am paying 50 percent of my earnings to the bank. I am complying when deep down I was a victim," she said. "It was a shock. I had to go to therapy because I couldn't believe it. It was like waking up from a dream and thinking, 'This can't be happening to me.'"
Santacana denies the allegations
Santacana has denied Sanchez Vicario's allegations, claiming he played no role in the disappearance of her fortune. His attorney, Juan Segarra, told the Daily Mail in a statement that Sanchez Vicario's fortune disappeared before the events that led to the proceedings against Santacana, and that she had already filed criminal complaints against her parents and her financial managers over the disappearance of her fortune.
Segarra said funds from the sale of properties involving Santacana were transferred to bank accounts owned by Sanchez Vicario, calling her victim claim "entirely false" and adding that "the same assets cannot disappear multiple times." Santacana's conviction has been appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court, and the appeal remains pending.
Career and family background
The 54-year-old Sanchez Vicario was part of the generation of tennis stars that followed Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Along with Germany's Steffi Graf and Yugoslavian-American star Monica Seles, she was part of a trio that dominated the sport from 1988 until the mid-1990s arrival of Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati and the Williams sisters. She won four Grand Slam singles titles and holds Olympic silver and bronze medals from the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Games.
Sanchez Vicario and Santacana share a daughter, born in 2009, and a son born two years later. She previously accused her parents and older brother of mismanaging her finances in a three-year court battle that ended with a private settlement in 2015. Before that, she was forced to pay back taxes and penalties after falsely claiming to be a resident of Andorra when she actually lived in her native Barcelona.
