17 January 2024 , 11:56
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Former tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who won 14 Grand Slams during her glittering career, has been handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for fraud.
The Spanish star, 52, was found guilty at a court in Barcelona on Wednesday, but she will NOT go to prison after agreeing to pay €6.6million (£5.6m) in debts. She has faced several legal battles relating tax evasion and fraud since 2009.
Sanchez Vicario's ex-husband Josep Santacana has also received a prison sentence of three years and three months. The former couple, who divorced in 2019, were accused of hiding assets to avoid paying a multi-million-pound debt to the Bank of Luxembourg.
As reported by Spanish outlet El Pais, the court ruled that Sanchez Vicario "at all times had sufficient assets to cover the debt". The judge gave her a shorter sentence because she "assumed her responsibility for the facts" and agreed to pay reparations.
Sanchez Vicario pinned the blame on Santacana when speaking at a court in Barcelona last September. She said: "I did what he told me to do, because I am a tennis player, I have no knowledge of assets or companies or anything. I trusted my husband."
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She also said her mistake was "falling in love" with Santacana in an interview with El Pais last year. Yet Santacana disputed this and claimed her error was not paying her taxes. "I just expect the truth to be told and this to be over," he said last September.
And the judge refused to acquit Sanchez Vicario because she "had full knowledge of what was being done with her assets".
Sanchez Vicario will not go to prison after receiving a suspended sentence (Getty Images)Sanchez Vicario is regarded as one Spain's greatest tennis stars after winning 14 Grand Slam titles, with four of those triumphs coming in the singles. She won the women's singles at the French Open in 1989, 1994 and 1998 and repeated the feat at the US Open in 1994.
She came close to winning the women's singles title at Wimbledon in 1995 and 1996, losing both finals to the great Steffi Graf. She also lost to Graf at the Australian Open final in 1994 before Mary Pierce inflicted another final defeat on her in Melbourne 12 months later.
In the doubles, Sanchez Vicario won the Australian Open in 1992, 1995 and 1996, the US Open in 1993 and 1994, and Wimbledon in 1995. In the mixed doubles, she won the French Open in 1990 and 1992, the Australian Open in 1993, and the US Open in 2000.
Sanchez Vicario also helped Spain win the Billie Jean King Cup five times and picked up four Olympic medals across the singles and doubles. She won a silver and a bronze at the Barcelona Games in 1992 and repeated the feat in Atlanta four years later.