Sanchez Vicario says $55m in winnings gone

9 Feb 2012, 4:46 am   -   Source: AAP
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Tennis great Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is blaming her parents for losing an estimated $55 million in career earnings.

Tennis great Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has blamed her parents for losing an estimated 45 million euros ($A55 million) in career earnings through mismanagement.

The 40-year-old Sanchez Vicario let loose against her whole family in a book of memoirs published on Tuesday.

She says she does not speak to her parents or her three siblings.

Sanchez Vicario says her parents were obsessed with her succeeding in a career that netted four Grand Slam singles titles, and even tried to interfere in her love life.

Her mother, Marisa, responded in an open letter to Spanish media that she and her husband Emilio were devastated by their daughter's accusations that they mismanaged her tournament winnings and endorsement money.

In the book, Sanchez Vicario says her parents, her father in particular, exercised tight control over who would train her and other aspects of her career, 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.

She 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."

She added: "They left me with nothing and I owe the tax authorities.

"How can it be that everything I achieved has vanished, that it does not exist?"

Her mother's letter was published on Monday, before the book came out. Lengthy excerpts of it ran in the newspaper El Mundo over the weekend.

Marisa Vicario Rubio said she would reserve comment on specifics until she read the book and consulted with her lawyers.

But she insisted "we never took advantage of Arantxa and under no circumstances is she broke".

She said 75-year-old Emilio has a weak heart, intestinal cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

But the daughter's accusations were worse than all the illnesses, she said. "That really is tough," she wrote.

Sanchez Vicario won the French Open three times, the US Open once and made the final of Wimbledon and the Australian Open. She added 10 more doubles or mixed doubles titles from Grand Slams. She also helped Spain win the Fed Cup five times, and was the first Spanish woman elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.

She has been Spain's Fed Cup captain since December.

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