Martina
Navratilova updates her health status in the fight against cancer after an
emotional moment at the
US Open. The 18-time Grand Slam champion spoke on Sky
Sports about her diagnosis of throat and breast cancer in 2023.
This is not
the first time the former world No. 1 has faced cancer, as it has reappeared
several times over the past years. This time, Navratilova confessed that she
hopes to avoid more setbacks in her recovery. The American first received a
diagnosis in 2010.
Navratilova shares health update
During the
US Open broadcast, Sky Sports presenter Gigi Salomon asked Navratilova how she
was doing: "I'm great, thank you! Very nice to be here. Feeling a lot
better this year than last year, so all systems go. I just got here a couple of
hours ago. I had my yearly check-up, and it's all clear, so a big relief
yesterday."
The
legendary former tennis player underwent preventive radiation treatment after
being cancer-free in 2023. At one point in 2022, Navratilova was being treated
by the same doctors as her friend and rival during their careers,
Chris Evert,
who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that year.
"We
were ringing the same bell, and I’m like: 'This is the kind of competition we
don’t really want.' But I must say, Chris has been just a star. She has
supported me so much through this as I supported her a year ago, but little did
I know that it was going to be reciprocated. She’s been great."
"You
have to be in game mode, and so that’s where having been a champion athlete
comes in pretty handy. I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t realize it
was going to be as hard as it really was."
Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert at the 2023 WTA Finals
The 4-time
US Open champion spoke about the difficulties she faced, especially with weight
loss, and how she received support from Evert during the toughest moments:
"I love to eat, and eating was the hardest part of this whole
treatment," she added. "I lost 15 pounds, not because I wanted to,
but because I just couldn’t get enough food in my body."
"The
radiation, the proton therapy affects your throat and the mouth, and there is a
lot going on, and it started closing up. I couldn’t even yawn. Chris gave me
this little necklace, and I was wearing it for a while, then I took it off and
replaced it,” Martina Navratilova added. "When Chris got sick, I put it
back on. I’m like: 'I’m not going to take this off until she gets well.' So, I
never took it off. I finally had to take it off to put the mask on, to get the
radiation, I had to take this off, so I finally put it back on again today,”
she concluded.