Tennis news 2026: Arantxa Sanchez Vicario loses $60 millon fortune, blames husband, tax fraud

Former tennis world No.1 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario has revealed new details on how she lost her reported $60 million fortune and narrowly avoided jail.

The four-time grand slam champion and her entrepreneur now-ex husband Josep Santacana went on trial in 2023 accused of hiding assets to avoid paying bank debts.

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It was the latest in a series of criminal charges relating to fraud accusations dating back as far as the early 1990s.

Sánchez Vicario was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay back $10 million to a Luxembourg bank.

In an interview on Spanish TV show Universo Callejo, Sánchez Vicario said she had lost her entire fortune, which she estimated to be about $60 million, and laid the blame firmly on her ex-husband.

“I trusted him because he was the father of my children,” she said.

“I fell blindly in love … he really isn’t the person I thought he was.”

“I focused on playing tennis and never handled my own financial affairs because I didn’t know how.

“I trusted my husband … and the money vanished. I was left to shoulder the entire burden.”

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The pair were married for 11 years and have two children together.

Sánchez Vicario said she avoided going to jail because she accepted the judge’s orders to pay 50 per cent of all future earnings towards the massive debt to the bank.

“I am complying when deep down I was a victim,” she said.

“It was a shock [to go to trial]. 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’.”

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The Spaniard has three Roland-Garros titles to her name, and famously won her first in 1989 aged just 17. She won two more in 1994 – the same year she also won the US Open – and 1998. She also made multiple finals at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

After her retirement in 2002, Sánchez Vicario had a court named after her at Caja Mágica, which hosts the Madrid Masters tournament. It has reportedly since been removed.

She is now working as a tennis coach in the USA, and continues to pay half her wages to the debt.

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