Penniless and in debt, Sanchez-Vicario blames her parents

Former women’s tennis great Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario – who battled with Steffi Graf in her prime and won four singles Grand Slams – has said that her parents have drained her of her estimated $60 million wealth and left her struggling to pay off her debts. Sanchez-Vicario, who also won six Grand Slam women’s doubles titles and four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles and is a former world No.1, wrote in her new book Arantxa, Vamos! Memoirs of a Struggle, a Life and a Woman that her parents made her “suffer a lot”, EuroSport reported, quoting Spanish magazine La Otra Conica. “A simple estimate, based on everything I’ve earned … would reach about 45 million euros ($55 million),” the 40-year-old said. “My parents left me with nothing and now I am indebted to the [tax authorities] and I will not be quiet. [caption id=“attachment_206715” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“File picture of Spain’s Sanchez-Vicario. Reuters”]  [/caption] “My mother decided on my hair, my clothes … When I bought something on my own, she rarely liked it. Today, I am without resources.” She also wrote in the book, as reported by El Pais newspaper: “My properties are worth a lot less than those of my brother Javier, who has earned a lot less than me… I never questioned the way my father managed my money. I have been a victim, I was duped. “To [my mother], discipline and victory came before any other consideration.” The right-handed player, who turned pro in 1985 and retired in 2002, won almost $US17 million ($15.8 million) in prize money, according to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She was believed to have had commercial endorsements that were more than twice that amount, EuroSport said. But her mother slammed her daughter’s claims, saying Sanchez-Vicario “had gone a step further in her desire to hurt us and humiliate us”. “As we read the article that was published we sunk deeper and deeper into despair, not because of all the lies in it, which came one after another, but more because we realised the actual state of our daughter,” Marisa Vicario Rubio wrote in the El Mundo newspaper, EuroSport reported. Sanchez-Vicario said she no longer spoke to her parents and her two brothers - Emilio and Javier - also former tennis professionals.