Record nine times Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer.
The 66-year-old tennis legend said Monday that she has been diagnosed with Stage 1 for both throat cancer and breast cancer.
“This double whammy is serious but still fixable,” said Navratilova in a statement posted on the WTA website.
“I’m hoping for a favorable outcome. It’s going to stink for a while, but I’ll fight with all have I got.”
The WTA said Navratilova’s fighting spirit is well-documented; she won a total of 59 Grand Slam titles – in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. And she’s already beaten cancer once before.
After discovering an enlarged lymph node in her neck during the WTA Finals in Fort Worth back in November, she underwent testing.
That was when doctors discovered Stage 1 throat cancer and later Stage 1 breast cancer.
Specifically, it is human papillomavirus (HPV), one of the more treatable cancers.
In 2010, at the age of 53, when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer, she cried for “about 15 seconds” and then asked her doctor, “OK, what do we do? What’s the next step?”
This time, the prognosis is said to be good, and her treatments begin next week,
Navratilova won’t be working the upcoming Australian Open for Tennis Channel but hopes to arrange some Zoom appearances soon.
