Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former
world No. 1 tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player. She won 14
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Olympic medals and five
Fed Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...
titles representing Spain. In 1994, she was crowned the ITF World Champion for the year.
Career
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario started playing tennis at the age of four, when she followed her older brothers
Emilio Sánchez
Emilio Ángel Sánchez Vicario (born 29 May 1965) is a Spanish former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. He won five Grand Slam doubles titles and the men's doubles silver medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. Sanchez is the older brother of multi ...
and
Javier Sánchez (both of whom became professional players) to the court and hit balls against the wall with her first racquet. As a 17-year-old, she became the youngest winner of the women's singles title at the 1989 French Open, defeating World No. 1
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
in the final. (
Monica Seles
Monica Seles (; hu, Széles Mónika, ; sr, Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš; born December 2, 1973) is a retired professional tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. A former world No. 1, she won nine Grand Slam ...
broke the record the following year when she won the title at age 16.)
Sánchez Vicario quickly developed a reputation on the tour for her tenacity and refusal to concede a point. Commentator
Bud Collins
Arthur Worth "Bud" Collins Jr. (June 17, 1929 – March 4, 2016) was an American journalist and television sportscaster, best known for his tennis commentary. Collins was married to photographer Anita Ruthling Klaussen.
Education
Collins was b ...
described her as "unceasing in determined pursuit of tennis balls, none seeming too distant to be retrieved in some manner and returned again and again to demoralize opponents" and nicknamed her the "Barcelona Bumblebee".
She won six women's doubles Grand Slam titles, including the US Open in 1993 (with
Helena Suková
Helena Suková () (born 23 February 1965) is a Czech former professional tennis player. During her career, she won 14 major doubles titles, nine in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. She is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in doub ...
) and
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
in 1995 (with
Jana Novotná
Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Novotná won the women's singles title at Wimbled ...
). She also won four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. In 1991, she helped Spain win its first-ever
Fed Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...
title, and helped Spain win the Fed Cup in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1998. Sanchez Vicario holds the records for the most matches won by a player in Fed Cup competition (72) and for most ties played (58). She was ITF world champion in 1994 in singles.
Sánchez Vicario was also a member of the Spanish teams that won the
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...
in 1990 and 2002.
Over the course of her career, Sánchez Vicario won 29 singles titles and 69 doubles titles before retiring in November 2002. She came out of retirement in 2004 to play doubles in a few select tournaments as well as the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
, where she became the only tennis player to play in five
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
in the
Games
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...
history. Sanchez Vicario was the most decorated Olympian in Spanish history with four medals – two silver and two bronze. Her medal count has since been surpassed by David Cal and Saul Craviotto with five medals each.
In 2005, ''TENNIS ''Magazine ranked her in 27th place in its list of
40 Greatest Players of the ''TENNIS'' era and in 2007, she was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
. She was only the third Spanish player (and the first Spanish woman) to be inducted.
In 2009, Sánchez Vicario was present at the opening ceremony of
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
's
Caja Mágica
La Caja Mágica ''( es, The Magic Box)'' (also known as the Manzanares Park Tennis Center) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Madrid, Spain. Since 2009, it has been the home of the Madrid Open tennis event, and as of 2019, the home of the Davi ...
, the new venue for the
Madrid Masters There are two sporting events named the Madrid Masters:
*Madrid Open (tennis)
The Madrid Open ( es, Masters de Madrid, link=no), currently sponsored by Mutua Madrileña and known as the Mutua Madrid Open, is a joint men's and women's professional ...
. The second show court is named Court Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in her honour.
In 2015, Sanchez Vicario went into professional coaching. She got involved in training Danish player
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is a Danish former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a total of 71 weeks, including at the end of 2010 and 2011. She achieved the top ranking for the first time on 11 ...
.
Personal life
She has been married twice: her first marriage to the sports writer Juan Vehils in July 2000 ended in 2001. She then married businessman Josep Santacana in September 2008, with whom she has a daughter (born 2009) and son (born 2011). In 2019, Sánchez Vicario and Santacana divorced.
In 2012, Sánchez Vicario published an autobiography in which she claimed that, despite having earned $60 million over the course of her career, her parents had exerted almost total control over her finances and lost all of her money. The same year, Sánchez Vicario sued her father and older brother
Javier Javier may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Javier, in video game ''Advance Wars: Dual Strike''
* Javier Rios, a character in the Monsters, Inc. franchise.
* Javier (album), ''Javier'' (album), a 2003 album by the American singer Javier ...
for the alleged mishandling of her career earnings. The court case continued over three years, and in 2015 concluded in a private settlement.
She has faced multiple court proceedings relating to charges of tax evasion and fraud. In 2009, Sánchez Vicario was found guilty of tax evasion and ordered to repay €3.5 million.
In 2015, Banque de Luxembourg successfully filed complaint against her for credit and property fraud amounting to $5.2 million, however they were unable to recoup it. In 2018, Sánchez Vicario was once again charged with fraud, for deliberately misleading the courts on her financial set-up during the previous case.
As of 2021, Barcelona prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail term for Sánchez Vicario, due to further allegations of fraud relating to the transfer of assets to avoid paying her debts from a previous lawsuit.
As well as tennis-playing siblings Javier and Emilio, Sanchez Vicario also has an older sister – Marisa – who briefly played professional tennis, peaking at world no. 368 in 1990.
Major finals
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 12 (4 titles, 8 runner–ups)
Women's doubles: 11 (6 titles, 5 runner–ups)
Mixed doubles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner–ups)
Olympics
Singles: 2 medals (1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal)
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario lost in the semi-finals to
Jennifer Capriati
Jennifer Maria Capriati (born March 29, 1976) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles Grand Slam titles and was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
C ...
3–6, 6–3, 1–6. In 1992, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semi-final players received bronze medals
Women's doubles: 2 medals (1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal)
Year-end championships finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner–up)
Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner–ups)
WTA career finals
Singles: 77 (29–48)
Doubles: 111 (69–42)
Grand Slam performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
WTA Tour career earnings
: * as of 17 January 2010
Head-to-head vs. top 10 ranked players
See also
*
WTA Awards This article lists the WTA Awards given by the Women's Tennis Association to players and coaches for achievements during a season or their careers.
Player of the Year
Doubles Team of the Year
Most Improved Player
Newcomer of the Yea ...
*
World number one women tennis players
World number 1 ranked female tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the female tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources.
Notes:
* The Women's Tennis Association introduced WTA rankings, a co ...
Notes
References
External links
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sportec.com: Tax evasion issue of Arantxa Sanchez VicarioArantxa Sanchez Vicario's induction speech to the Hall of Fame1997 granted b
Spanish Heart Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez Vicario, Arantxa
1971 births
Australian Open (tennis) champions
Sportswomen from Catalonia
French Open champions
Hopman Cup competitors
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Living people
Olympic bronze medalists for Spain
Olympic silver medalists for Spain
Olympic medalists in tennis
Olympic tennis players of Spain
Spanish female tennis players
Tennis players from Barcelona
Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
US Open (tennis) champions
Wimbledon champions
Tennis commentators
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Spanish tennis coaches
WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players
WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players
ITF World Champions