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Chris Evert in November 2022
Photo Credit: Rob Prange / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
A year after she revealed her cancer, former world-class tennis player Chris Evert says she has fought the disease for the first time.
"Today I'm cancer free and there's a 90 percent chance that ovarian cancer will never come back," Evert wrote in a post on ESPN's homepage.
The 68-year-old wrote that she would have to undergo a minor operation before she would be completely restored.
Exactly one year ago, Evert announced that she had ovarian cancer.
"I immediately started six rounds of chemotherapy," wrote the American, who had been number one in the world for 260 weeks.
Only because her sister Jeanne died of ovarian cancer did she have herself examined.
So her illness was recognized in time.
Evert is one of the most successful tennis players of all time.
Between 1974 and 1986 she won a total of 18 Grand Slam titles (Here is a data analysis on the most successful female players in history).
Her duels with Martina Navratilova, who also won 18 Grand Slams, were legendary.
"This double whammy is serious, but still repairable"
The American, who was two years younger, had also made cancer public just two weeks ago.
Navratilova had been diagnosed with early-stage larynx and breast cancer.
"This double whammy is serious but still fixable and I hope for a favorable outcome," Navratilova wrote in a statement.
It will be miserable for a while, "but I will fight with all my strength," she announced.
In 2010, she was diagnosed with non-invasive breast cancer, and after six months of treatment, the former world number one was considered cancer-free.
At the time, she "cried for about 15 seconds" and then asked the doctor, "Okay, what can we do, what's the next step?" Navratilova once said.
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