Martina Navratilova tells of breast cancer diagnosis
Former tennis champion Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with breast cancer, it has been reported by US magazine People.
According to People’s report the winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles tested positive for breast cancer during a routine biopsy in February, but the prognosis for the 53-year-old is said to be excellent.
"It [the diagnosis] knocked me on my a*s, really,” Navratilova is quoted as saying in People. “I feel so in control of my life and my body, and then this comes, and it's completely out of my hands."
The Czech-born American has already had a lumpectomy and is due to start a six-week course of radiation therapy in May, the magazine reports.
Navratilova still plays tennis and competes in triathlons, and in March was involved in the ‘Hit for Haiti’ during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where she partnered Justine Henin against Steffi Graf and Lindsay Davenport in the charity tennis exhibition to raise money for the Haiti earthquake survivors.
The nine-time Wimbledon singles champion won 31 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles in her distinguished career as well as 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.
After retiring from full-time tennis soon after reaching the 1994 Wimbledon final, then aged 37, Navratilova returned to the doubles circuit in 2000, and won her final Grand Slam title at the 2006 US Open while partnering the USA’s Bob Bryan.
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