According to ESPN on Friday, Chris Evert of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, one of the greatest women’s tennis players of all-time has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The diagnosis is significant because the disease killed Evert’s sister Jeanne in 2020.
Evert will still continue to work for ESPN during the 2022 Australian Open. However, she will be working from her home in Boca Raton, Florida while she undergoes chemotherapy treatment. The 67-year-old is an 18-time major singles champion as she won the Australian Open twice (1982 and 1984), the French Open seven times (1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, and 1986), Wimbledon thrice (1974, 1976, and 1981), and the United States Open six times (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1982). Evert is tied with Martina Navratilova for fifth all-time in women’s tennis.
Evert’s 1982 Australian Open championship came over Martina Navratilova of the United States in a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 win. With the win, Evert became the sixth player ever to win the women’s singles career grand slam. She followed Americans Maureen Connolly (1953), Doris Hart (1954), Shirley Fry Irvin (1957), Australia’s Margaret Court (1963), and American Billie Jean King (1972). Then two years later, Evert beat Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 at the 1984 Australian Open final.
Among the high performance athletes who have had ovarian cancer are three-time Olympic silver medal-winning Australian sprinter Raelene Boyle (silver in the 100 metres at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and silver in the 200 metres at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, and the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich), tennis star Connolly (who died of the disease at age 34 in 1969), and two-time Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Shannon Miller of the United States (gold in the women’s balance beam and team competition at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta).
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