With 18 Grand Slam under her belt, Chris Evert remains one of the all-time greats in women’s tennis and tied for fifth-best in women’s tennis history along with long-time competitor Martina Navratilova. It was in 2022 that Evert was first diagnosed with Ovarian cancer, which recurred in 2023. The 70-year-old fought the disease and overcame it and she says that the experience has made her more humble and increased her compassion for people.
“When I was going through chemo, people would always come up to me and say, ‘You’re so brave. I don’t know how you do it.’ And I’d look at them and say, ‘What’s the alternative? What else can you do?’ I told them, ‘You would do the same thing.’ It didn’t matter that I’m a well-known athlete who is fit and healthy; I’m one of the millions of people around the world who have cancer, and receive chemo.
“When you’re sitting in that room getting chemotherapy pumped into your veins, you can’t help but look around and see all the other people doing the same thing. It makes you humble. And it increases your compassion for people,” Evert wrote in her column for The Free Press.
While Evert had retired in 1989 after winning 18 Grand Slam titles, the tennis star had stayed in touch with the game afterwards. Within years of hanging up her boots, Evert started the Evert Tennis Academy with her brother John in Boca Raton and later Evert would start commentating in international tournaments including grand slams at the age of 55 in 2010. It was the diagnosis and death of her younger sister due to cancer in 2020, which led to Evert undergoing a cancer diagnosis and with the results coming positive in 2021, Evert would undergo chemotherapy and multiple surgeries.
The cancer would return in 2023 followed by further rounds of treatment before Evert was declared cancer free in 2024. The 70-year-old also talked about how she would also get support from fellow competitor and 18-time major championship winner Martina Navratilova, who too was fighting with cancer.
During her career, Evert had faced Navratilova in 80 matches and had a 37-43 win-loss record against her. The two faced each other 14 times in major finals with Evert winning four of those finals and Navratilova winning ten of those. “In the hospital and the doctor’s office, I’ve met other people with cancer, of course. Some of them are accepting of it, and others seem sad. For my part, I feel fortunate—fortunate that mine was caught early and that I had such great support from my kids, my brother and sister, and my ex-husband Andy. And also Martina (Navratilova), who had cancer at the same time I did. We were able to talk to each other about how the chemo affected each of us, but we could also talk about the mental and emotional aspects of having cancer,” Evert further wrote.
Post her treatment in 2023, Evert returned to commentating duties during last year’s French Open and has been donning the commentator role since then. Evert also talked about how she now has to get a CAT scan every three months and how she looks towards life now.
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“The chances of a recurrence were supposed to be pretty small, yet my cancer came back about a year after I thought I was done with it. I was frustrated beyond belief. Fortunately, it’s in remission, but in some ways I still have shackles on because after you’ve had cancer twice, the odds of getting it again go up. I have to get a CAT scan every three months for the rest of my life, as well as blood work and a physical examination. So my perception of my life is: every three months. I just try to live my fullest life within those three months. I don’t look ahead to one or two years down the road,” Evert wrote.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
