(Reuters) – Canada’s former U.S. Open doubles champion and Paris Olympic bronze medallist Gabriela Dabrowski said on Tuesday she underwent breast cancer surgery earlier this year.
The 32-year-old was diagnosed in April.
Following two surgeries and a three-month WTA Tour break, the former Australian and French Open mixed doubles champion won the Nottingham grass-court title with New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe in June.
The duo also reached the Wimbledon final but lost to Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.
Dabrowski had postponed further treatment to compete at Wimbledon and the Olympics, where she won bronze for Canada in the mixed doubles with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“Early on in my diagnosis I was afraid of cancer becoming a part of my identity forever. I don’t feel that way anymore. It is a privilege to be able to call myself a survivor,” Dabrowski wrote on Instagram.
The Canadian had radiation therapy before the U.S. Open in late August where she reached the quarter-finals with Routliffe.
“Fast forward through two surgeries at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, recovery, rehab, Patrick Daciek (coach) tossing the ball for me on my serve because my left arm could not raise high enough (this was 2 weeks before Nottingham),” Dabrowski added.
“A slight delay in further treatment to be able to compete at Wimbledon and the Olympics, radiation + fatigue (between Toronto and US Open), starting endocrine therapy, ending the season on the highest note possible … it all seems surreal.
Dabrowski finished the year as world number three after winning the WTA Finals in Riyadh with Routliffe, defeating Townsend and Siniakova.
“If you saw me smiling more on court in the past six months, it was genuine … My cancer diagnosis was the catalyst for more sustained change,” Dabrowski added.
“When the threat of losing everything I’d worked for my entire life became a real possibility, only then did I begin to authentically appreciate what I had.
“Through this lens I find it so much easier to find joy in areas of my life I previously viewed as a heavy weight.”
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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