Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks, as well as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 111 weeks. A defensive baseliner, Sánchez Vicario won 29 WTA Tour-level singles titles and 69 doubles titles, including 14

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Olympic medals and five Fed Cup titles representing Spain. In 1994, Sánchez Vicario was crowned the ITF World Champion of the year.

Career

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario started playing tennis at the age of four, when she followed her older brothers Emilio Sánchez 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. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...

in the final. (

Monica Seles Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

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 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) and Wimbledon in 1995 (with Jana Novotná). She also won four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. In 1991, she helped Spain win its first-ever Fed Cup title, and helped Spain win the Fed Cup in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1998. Sánchez 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. She was also a member of the Spanish teams that won the Hopman Cup in 1990 and 2002. Over the course of her career, she 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 (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, where she became the only tennis player to play in five Olympics in the Games' history. Sánchez 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 Saúl 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, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...

. 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 List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

's Caja Mágica, the new venue for the Madrid Masters. The second show court is named Court Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in her honour.

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 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. Between 1989 and 1993, she had falsely claimed to be resident of

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

for tax purposes but was actually residing in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain. As a result, she was ordered to pay back

taxes A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

and penalties. 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. In 2024, she received a suspended sentence. As well as tennis-playing siblings Javier and Emilio, Sánchez Vicario also has an older sister—Marisa—who briefly played professional tennis, peaking at world no. 368 in 1990.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 12 (4 titles, 8 runners-up)

Doubles: 11 (6 titles, 5 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runners-up)

Summer Olympics

Singles: 2 medals (1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal)

Note: ''Arantxa Sánchez Vicario lost in the semi-finals to Jennifer Capriati 3–6, 6–3, 1–6. In 1992, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semi-final players received bronze medals''

Doubles: 2 medals (1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal)

Year-end championships finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runners-up)

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * * * *
Golden Heart Award
1997 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 for Spain in tennis Olympic tennis players for 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