WIMBLEDON winner Arantxa Sánchez Vicario has managed to get her trophies back from her ex-husband, Josep Santacana, from whom she is undergoing a messy divorce, according to Spanish national daily newspaper El País.
According to the report, a van collected the retired tennis star's medals, cups and even her wedding dress from a warehouse belonging to the Santacana family in Fontrubí (Barcelona province) last week along with other valuables and personal effects such as works of art and cutlery.
Josep Santacana reportedly signed a document in front of a notary agreeing to allow Arantxa to recover the possessions which were of most sentimental value to her, and which would include her Wimbledon trophy.
These goods were taken to a property owned by Arantxa's brother, Javier Sánchez Vicario.
Arantxa's relationship with Josep Santacana never ran smoothly from the start – her family fell out with her over her choice of partner, saying they did not trust him, and even resorting to hiring private detectives to trail him.
The detectives found out Santacana had massive debts and no assets to his name at all – information Arantxa's family confronted her with.
In response, the tennis star settled Santacana's debts herself and allowed him to manage her own finances, which included, at the time, around US$17 million in prize money earnt throughout her career.
But Santacana's management left a lot to be desired: from being one of the world's wealthiest tennis players, Arantxa ended up having to sell the couple's holiday home in Formentera, their yacht and their villa in the province of Barcelona, and is now said to be in debt to the Spanish tax authorities to the tune of around €1.7m and to the Bank of Luxembourg for €7.5m.
As well as losing money through her husband, Arantxa's own family of origin managed to blow an eight-figure sum of her money, leading her to taking them to court.
When her father Emilio Sánchez died in 2016, one of her immediate family assaulted her husband at the funeral, causing her mother Marisa to pass out in shock and Arantxa herself being ordered to leave.
In February this year, it was revealed that Arantxa's husband had filed for divorce, taken all her remaining assets and applied for custody of their two children, claiming she is an 'unfit mother'.
Josep Santacana says the ex-sportswoman is 'not mentally fit' to care for Arantxa, nine and Leo, seven.
As a result of her husband's having taken all her remaining wealth from her, the one-time multi-millionaire now lives on the very healthy but much-diminished sum of €3,000 a month from her job as sports director at the Metropolitan School of Miami and from ad hoc jobs with various Latin American TV channels as sports commentator.
In the last week, however, her husband has 'allowed' her to recover personal effects that mean a great deal to her, although it is not believed he has let her have any of her own or the marital assets.
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, along with the Czech Republic's Jana Novotná, won the women's doubles at Wimbledon in 1995, beating the international duo comprising Belarus' Natasha Zvereva and the USA's Gigi Fernández.
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