Arantxa Sánchez Vicario guilty of fraud, will avoid prison - ESPN

BARCELONA, Spain — Former women's No. 1 tennis player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and her ex-husband have been found guilty of fraud, a Spanish court ruled Wednesday.

The Barcelona-based court found that Sánchez Vicario and her former husband had hidden assets in an attempt to avoid paying a multimillion-euro debt to Banque de Luxembourg.

The four-time Grand Slam winner was sentenced to two years of prison time, but she avoided going behind bars since the court waived her sentence as a first-time offender. She reached a deal with prosecutors last year to admit to the accusations in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Her former husband, Josep Santacana, received a prison sentence of three years and three months.

Sánchez Vicario and Santacana must also pay a fine of 6.6 million euros ($7.1 million).

The two, who divorced in 2019, had denied the charges. Sánchez Vicario had blamed Santacana, arguing he had been handling her money and she was not aware of any illegal tampering with her family assets.

The court ruled, however, that although Sánchez Vicario did not have the financial knowledge to carry out the operations, «obviously she had full knowledge of what was done with her assets and was benefiting from them, with the full awareness of the debt she had with Banque de Luxembourg.»

Sánchez Vicario, 52, won the French Open in 1989, 1994 and 1998 and the US Open in 1994.

Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.