Born in Barcelona in 1971 in the bosom of a tennis-playing family, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario is the best Spaniard ever to play the game. She became the youngest Spanish tennis champion ever when she won the national title in 1985, at just 13 years old, and the only Spanish player to be ranked number one in the world-for a few weeks in February 1995-in women´s singles. Moreover, she has been one of only three tennis players in the world to be top-ranked by the WTA in singles and doubles at the same time. In 1989, at just seventeen, she won her first Grand Slam event by beating Steffi Graff in the finals of the Roland Garros tournament. In 1994, a historic year for Spanish tennis on the strength of her victories as well as those achieved by Conchita Martínez and Sergi Bruguera, she again won the Roland Garros tournament, in addition to the U.S. Open. This same year she was proclaimed "World Champion" by the International Tennis Federation.

She has participated in the Olympic Games in Seoul, Barcelona, and Atlanta. At the ´92 Olympics in Barcelona she won a bronze medal in singles and a silver in doubles, with Conchita Martínez as her partner. At the ´96 Olympics in Atlanta she also won two medals: a silver in singles and a bronze in doubles, once again teaming up with Conchita Martínez. Thus, she has won more Olympic medals than any other Spanish athlete in the 100-year history of the modern Olympic Games.

She is a five-time winner of the Federation Cup and has been a finalist on another three occasions. Standing out among her latest victories are the Federation Cup title and the Roland Garros tournament, both in 1998. During recent years she has collaborated with the Enriqueta Villavecchia Foundation, which is dedicated to helping children with cancer. Likewise, she is a member of the Sánchez- Vicario Foundation, which helps young tennis-players without resources.