Former Spanish tennis ace Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has lashed out again at her parents, accusing them of “stifling” her in her career.

The 40-year-old player spoke as she presented her autobiography, in which she blames her parents for losing the roughly 45 million euros ($A55 million) she earned throughout her career.

“They exercised a control and protection that stifled me in the most crucial moments of my life,” she said, visibly tense, at the event in a Barcelona bookshop on Tuesday.

Writing the book was “very painful” but “vitally necessary” to tell the truth about her family relations, she said in a statement she read out to scores of reporters.

Sanchez Vicario retired in 2002 after winning four Grand Slam titles and once holding the number one ranking.

In the book she wrote that she owed Spanish tax authorities money and accused her parents of mismanaging her winnings, blaming them for a fine of 3.5 million euros she got for paying her taxes in Andorra instead of in Spain.

“They left me with nothing,” she wrote in her book, titled Let’s Go! Memories of a fight, a life and a woman.

Her mother, Marisa Vicario Rubio, denied profiting from her daughter’s gains and said she was consulting her lawyers about the accusations made in the book.

The player declined to comment on Tuesday on the issue of her financial problems.

“All that is in the hands of the lawyers,” she said.

Among Sanchez Vicario’s victories were French Open titles in 1989, 1994 and 1998, and a United States Open title in 1994, when she beat Steffi Graf in the final.

She reached the final at Wimbledon each of the next two years, losing both times to Graf.