Giorgi quietly retired from tennis at the start of May, playing her last match at the Miami Open before suddenly appearing on the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s list of retired players. Her legal team have insisted that the decision to end her career was nothing to do with the unpaid taxes that she supposedly owes.
The 32-year-old has since been accused of leaving the villa she lived in until recently with six months of unpaid rent, as well as allegedly taking an antique table and other items of sentimental value. The owner of the villa in Calenzano, near Florence, also claimed that Giorgi left the villa without informing them.
“Those objects are part of my mother’s life and mine,” said the owner in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “I want them back, at least this much, given that we have lost hope due to the thousands and thousands of euros in back rent.”
The owner said they were told by a neighbour that a number of removal vans had appeared outside the villa, which came as a surprise with the owner having not heard anything from Giorgi herself.
“When I arrived there was no one left and the house was half empty,” added the owner. “In the garden, however, there were other pieces of furniture and carpets piled on top of each other. They had probably already filled the trucks and didn’t know where to put them anymore.”
Giorgi’s lawyers released a statement earlier this month, in which they said that she left the villa because of a ‘divergence of views within the family’. They also claimed that she wanted a change of scenery to take a break and decide how to proceed in her life after retiring from professional tennis.
The statement read: “Camila will return to Italy soon. The removal from the Calenzano residence is temporary and due to a divergence of views within the family, and the desire to take a break for reflection to decide how to plan one’s life after abandoning competitive activity.
“No intention of escaping investigations or responsibilities, indeed there has always been maximum transparency and collaboration when required. It [her retirement] is actually a decision that has been made for several months. Since Covid, Camila was thinking of gradually slowing down, she had difficulty coping with the stress of competitive activity.”
