Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
A few facts about this popular tennis player.
Father´s Name: Emilio Sánchez.
Mother´s Name: Marisa Vicario.
Brothers and Sisters: 2 brothers: Emilio, and Javier, and 1 sister:
Marisa. Emilio is now Arantxa's coach, and is also a former competitor on the ATP tour.
Javier currently competes on the ATP tour.
Marisa works for Spanish TV, as a sports reporter.
Date Of Birth: 18th December 1971.
Place Of Birth: Barcelona.
Grand Slam Titles: 4.
Languages Spoken: Catalan, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Likes: Apart from Tennis Arantxa likes Animals, (she has two dogs), music,
reading, films, soccer, cycling, and basketball.
Style: Plays right handed, with a two handed backhand.
Arantxa won her first Grand Slam, the French Open, in 1989, aged 17 years old, at the time
the youngest ever player to win, although her record was broken a year later by Monica
Seles.
She then went on to win the French Open again, in 1994, and the US
Open, during the same year. Then 4 years later captured her fourth Grand Slam singles
title, at the 1998 Fench Open, coming back from the brink of defeat to beat Serena
Williams in the 4th round, and beating crowd favourite Monica Seles, 7-6, (7-5), 0-6, 6-2,
in the finals.
Her highest ever singles ranking is No. 1, achieved on November 26th 1995.
She also has Olympic bronze, and silver medals achieved in both singles and doubles. In
the 1992 Olympics, in Barcelona, Arantxa achieved a bronze medal in the singles, and a
silver medal in the doubles, this was reversed in the 1996 Olympics, in Atlanta, when she
won silver in the singles, and
bronze in the doubles. On both occasions she played doubles with Conchita Martínez.
Arantxa also holds the record as being the Spanish woman with the most olympic medals.
Although some people may say that Arantxa may not have the instinctive talent displayed by Steffi Graf, Martina, or Martina Hingis, Arantxa has a determination and will to win, so strong that it completely makes up for that. She also has the ability to win or lose matches with grace. This is one of the qualities I most admire in her, while some other players make excuses, or spiteful comments about the other player when they lose. Arantxa will always make comments like 'I tried my best, she played better than me today'.