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Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario accuses parents of taking her £38m fortune
• Former women's world No1 says parents made her 'suffer'
• Mother attacks 'lies' designed to 'hurt and humiliate us'
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, pictured in action at the 2000 French Open, has alleged her parents have left her struggling to pay debts. Photograph: Stu Forster/Allsport
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, the former world No1, has claimed she has been left struggling to pay her debts after accusing her parents of taking her £38m fortune. The Spaniard, who won three French Open titles and one US Open, claims in her new memoir, Arantxa, Vamos! Memoirs of a Struggle, a Life and a Woman, that her parents made her "suffer a lot".
In quotes reported by the Spanish magazine La Otra Cronica, she writes: "A simple estimate, based on everything I've earned … would reach about €45m [£38m]. My parents left me with nothing and now I am indebted to the [tax authorities] and I will not be quiet. My mother decided on my hair, my clothes … When I bought something on my own, she rarely liked it. Today, I am without resources."
In the book, Sánchez-Vicario says her parents, her father in particular, exercised tight control over who would train her and her winnings. She got a monthly payment from her father and trusted him to invest the rest. "I never doubted that my father would manage my assets in the most efficient and beneficial way," she wrote.
"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."
Sánchez-Vicario retired in 2002 and after "breaking free" of her parents' influence, "the surprise came. Then, the disappointment. The surprise of finding myself without resources after a career full of successes and therefore winnings. They left me with nothing. How can it be that everything I achieved has vanished, that it does not exist?"
However, Sánchez-Vicario's mother attacked her daughter's claims, saying she "had gone a step further in her desire to hurt us and humiliate us". Talking to El Mundo, Marisa Vicario Rubio said: "As we read the article we sunk deeper and deeper into despair, not because of all the lies in it but more because we realised the actual state of our daughter. For 20 years, we put everything aside and forfeited our lives and our marriage for her career. I personally escorted her from a very young age to every tournament, leaving my husband and my other children behind.
"Then my husband, Emilio, quit his job to accompany her and help her. We tried to do the best we could. Clearly we failed her.We are accused of leaving her in ruins with the type of a grudge and resentment worthy of your worst enemy."
A lawyer for Sánchez-Vicario's parents told Spanish television: "They are not considering legal action. What they are going to do is weigh up all the elements to see how they are affected and how they can answer such serious accusations which she is apparently making. At no time have they taken advantage of her and she is, of course, not ruined."
• Former women's world No1 says parents made her 'suffer'
• Mother attacks 'lies' designed to 'hurt and humiliate us'
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 February 2012 09.54 GMT
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, pictured in action at the 2000 French Open, has alleged her parents have left her struggling to pay debts. Photograph: Stu Forster/Allsport
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, the former world No1, has claimed she has been left struggling to pay her debts after accusing her parents of taking her £38m fortune. The Spaniard, who won three French Open titles and one US Open, claims in her new memoir, Arantxa, Vamos! Memoirs of a Struggle, a Life and a Woman, that her parents made her "suffer a lot".
In quotes reported by the Spanish magazine La Otra Cronica, she writes: "A simple estimate, based on everything I've earned … would reach about €45m [£38m]. My parents left me with nothing and now I am indebted to the [tax authorities] and I will not be quiet. My mother decided on my hair, my clothes … When I bought something on my own, she rarely liked it. Today, I am without resources."
In the book, Sánchez-Vicario says her parents, her father in particular, exercised tight control over who would train her and her winnings. She got a monthly payment from her father and trusted him to invest the rest. "I never doubted that my father would manage my assets in the most efficient and beneficial way," she wrote.
"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."
Sánchez-Vicario retired in 2002 and after "breaking free" of her parents' influence, "the surprise came. Then, the disappointment. The surprise of finding myself without resources after a career full of successes and therefore winnings. They left me with nothing. How can it be that everything I achieved has vanished, that it does not exist?"
However, Sánchez-Vicario's mother attacked her daughter's claims, saying she "had gone a step further in her desire to hurt us and humiliate us". Talking to El Mundo, Marisa Vicario Rubio said: "As we read the article we sunk deeper and deeper into despair, not because of all the lies in it but more because we realised the actual state of our daughter. For 20 years, we put everything aside and forfeited our lives and our marriage for her career. I personally escorted her from a very young age to every tournament, leaving my husband and my other children behind.
"Then my husband, Emilio, quit his job to accompany her and help her. We tried to do the best we could. Clearly we failed her.We are accused of leaving her in ruins with the type of a grudge and resentment worthy of your worst enemy."
A lawyer for Sánchez-Vicario's parents told Spanish television: "They are not considering legal action. What they are going to do is weigh up all the elements to see how they are affected and how they can answer such serious accusations which she is apparently making. At no time have they taken advantage of her and she is, of course, not ruined."
