“I raise my children thanks to the money that friends leave me”: The harsh confession of four-time Grand Slam winning tennis player
She earned more than $17 million in prize money for her tennis career. And according to Forbes magazine, she earned an additional $35 million dollars in sponsorship.
After being at the pinnacle of world tennis for winning Roland Garros three times, now tennis player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario is living a real ordeal, together with her children in the United States.
From this Tuesday she will sit in the dock alongside her ex-husband, Josep Santacana, from whom she has been separated since 2018. Both have ended up going to trial in Spain for an alleged crime of asset stripping and face up to four years in prison and to pay more than $6 million in civil liability.
In an interview with the newspaper ‘El Pais’ she confessed: “I was in love. I trusted my ex-husband and I have been immersed in this situation. My mistake, as I have said other times, was falling in love. I trusted the person next to me, my husband, and he played me”.
Sanchez Vicario lives in Miami with her two children, but confesses to be in dire financial straits: “I give private tennis lessons and sometimes I am hired to help in the organization of tournaments, or as a commentator. I am making a brutal economic effort, which I will continue to do all my life. I am able to support my children thanks, also, to the money that friends leave me. That’s what I’m getting by on.
And he continues: “It is very unfair. With what I have earned, not being able to live from tennis is a very hard blow that I did not expect. Winning what I won cost me kilometers running on the court, hours of training, sacrifice and effort. I had to earn it, nobody gave me anything for free. What is mine is mine, and my children’s. That is what motivates me the most. That is what motivates me the most to get it back”.
In addition, the athlete takes refuge in religion: “I pray often. And I’m going to put a candle so that this goes well”. And also in her two children, Aranxta and Leo, 14 and 11 years old respectively. “My life is focused on them. They are everything to me, they are what keeps me going,” she said.
Arantxa regrets that people who barely know her speak on her behalf. “My life in the United States consists of working every day, paying my debts and taking care of my children.”