Arantxa Sánchez Vicario

Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈɾanθaθw isaˈβel maˈɾi.a aˈɾantʃa ˈsantʃeθ βiˈkaɾjo]; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks, as well as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 111 weeks. A defensive baseliner, Sánchez Vicario won 29 WTA Tour-level singles titles and 69 doubles titles, including 14 major titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Olympic medals and five Fed Cup titles representing Spain. In 1994, Sánchez Vicario was crowned the ITF World Champion of the year.

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario started playing tennis at the age of four, when she followed her older brothers Emilio Sánchez and Javier Sánchez (both of whom became professional players) to the court and hit balls against the wall with her first racquet. As a 17-year-old, she became the youngest winner of the women's singles title at the 1989 French Open, defeating World No. 1 Steffi Graf in the final. (Monica Seles broke the record the following year when she won the title at age 16.)

Sánchez Vicario quickly developed a reputation on the tour for her tenacity and refusal to concede a point. Commentator Bud Collins described her as "unceasing in determined pursuit of tennis balls, none seeming too distant to be retrieved in some manner and returned again and again to demoralize opponents" and nicknamed her the "Barcelona Bumblebee".

She won six women's doubles Grand Slam titles, including the US Open in 1993 (with Helena Suková) and Wimbledon in 1995 (with Jana Novotná). She also won four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. In 1991, she helped Spain win its first-ever Fed Cup title, and helped Spain win the Fed Cup in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1998. Sánchez Vicario holds the records for the most matches won by a player in Fed Cup competition (72) and for most ties played (58). She was ITF world champion in 1994 in singles. She was also a member of the Spanish teams that won the Hopman Cup in 1990 and 2002.

Over the course of her career, she won 29 singles titles and 69 doubles titles before retiring in November 2002. She came out of retirement in 2004 to play doubles in a few select tournaments as well as the 2004 Summer Olympics, where she became the only tennis player to play in five Olympics in the Games' history. Sánchez Vicario was the most decorated Olympian in Spanish history with four medals—two silver and two bronze. Her medal count has since been surpassed by David Cal and Saúl Craviotto with five medals each.

In 2005, TENNIS magazine ranked her in 27th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era and in 2007, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was only the third Spanish player (and the first Spanish woman) to be inducted.

She has been married twice: her first marriage to the sports writer Juan Vehils in July 2000 ended in 2001. She then married businessman Josep Santacana in September 2008, with whom she has a daughter (born 2009) and son (born 2011). In 2019, Sánchez Vicario and Santacana divorced.

In 2012, Sánchez Vicario published an autobiography in which she claimed that, despite having earned $60 million over the course of her career, her parents had exerted almost total control over her finances and lost all of her money. The same year, Sánchez Vicario sued her father and older brother Javier for the alleged mishandling of her career earnings. The court case continued over three years and in 2015 concluded in a private settlement.