Former world number one tennis players lost their $41 million fortune from the sport.
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario used to be one of the best women’s tennis players in the world. Now, she has shared the sad story of how her $41 million fortune “disappeared.”
Her amazing tennis career brought her to the very top. She won four Grand Slam singles titles, including three French Opens, and was number one in the world for 12 weeks in 1995.
The 54-year-old, who retired in 2002, also had great success in doubles, winning six Grand Slam titles. One of her biggest wins was at Wimbledon in 1995 with her partner Jana Novotna.
Although she reached the highest level in tennis, things have been tough for her lately. She revealed that she lost most of her money because she trusted her ex-husband, Josep Santacana, to manage her finances during their marriage from 2008 to 2019.
“I trusted him because he was the father of my children,” she said on the Spanish TV show Universo Callejo. “I was totally in love, but he turned out to be very different from what I thought.”
In 2024, both Sanchez Vicario and Santacana were found guilty of fraud after they were accused of hiding money to avoid paying big debts to the Banque de Luxembourg. She got a two-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay back £5.5 million.
Talking about losing her career earnings — about $41 million — she explained how her money just “vanished” because of her ex-husband.
“It’s true, that’s the number people saw in the news,” she said. “I was focused on tennis and never handled my own money because I didn’t really know how. I trusted my husband… and the money disappeared. I was left to deal with everything.”
When asked about not going to jail, she said, “I didn’t go to prison because I’m paying half of my earnings to the bank. I’m doing what I have to, but deep down I was a victim.”
Since retiring over 20 years ago, the Spaniard has faced many challenges, but her financial problems don’t change the amazing things she did in tennis.
She made history many times, like when she became the youngest French Open champion in 1989 at just 17 years old. After beating world number one Steffi Graf, she became a star and kept winning.
Sanchez Vicario also won four Olympic medals for Spain in the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Games, with a total of 14 major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
Her amazing career was honored in 2007 when she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, alongside tennis legends like Maria Sharapova and Pam Shriver.