Former Wimbledon finalist and 14-time Grand Slam winner handed two-year suspended prison sentence
Paul Coyte sports roundup 170124
Former tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has received a two-year suspended prison sentence for fraud.
The Spanish star won 14 Grand Slams during her tennis career, while also making the final of Wimbledon back in 1995 and 1996.
She lost to Steffi Graf on both occasions.
Sanchez Vicario was found guilty of fraud at a court in Barcelona on Wednesday. However, she won't go to prison after agreeing to cough up £5.6m in debts.
Tennis news: Former Wimbledon finalist Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has been found guilty of fraud
GETTY
Her ex-husband, Josep Santacana has also received a prison sentence of three years and three months.
The couple were accused of hiding assets to avoid paying a multi-million-pound debt to the Bank of Luxembourg.
They divorced in 2019.
Per Spanish outlet El Pais, the court ruled that Sanchez Vicario 'at all times had sufficient assets to cover the debt'.
She was given a shorter sentence because 'she assumed her responsibility for the facts' and had agreed to pay reparations.
The judge also refused to acquit the 52-year-old because 'she had full knowledge of what was being done with her assets'.
Sanchez Vicario blamed her ex-husband when speaking at a court in Barcelona last September.
Speaking at the time, 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."
She also said: "I just expect the truth to be told and this to be over."
Sanchez Vicario, at the peak of her career, was one of the best tennis players around.
She won four singles titles, including three French Opens - in 1989, 1994 and 1998 - and the US Open in 1994.
The majority of her achievements came in the doubles.
She won the Australian Open in 1992, 1995 and 1996, the US Open in 1993 and 1994, and Wimbledon in 1995.
While playing in the mixed doubles, she claimed French Open glory in 1990 and 1992, the Australian Open in 1993 and the US Open in 2000.
Other achievements include helping Spain win the Billie Jean King Cup five times.
She won four medals at the Olympics, too.
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Tennis news: Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won 14 Grand Slams during the course of her career
GETTY
Sanchez Vicario scooped a silver and a bronze at the Barcelona Games in 1992.
She then proceeded to repeat the achievement four years later in the United States.
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