Former U.S. Open women’s doubles champion Gabriela Dabrowski revealed on Tuesday she had played through 2024 after undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She delayed part of that treatment so she could compete at Wimbledon where she reached the doubles final.
“I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am OK and I will be OK,” the 32-year-old Canadian said on social media. “Early detection saves lives. I can wholeheartedly agree with this.”
Dabrowski, ranked third in women’s doubles, said in an Instagram post that she received the diagnosis in April. She did not play that month and in May because of surgery, but returned to the courts in June.
Dabrowski said there was “a slight delay in further treatment” so she could compete at Wimbledon — where she and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe lost the final in July to Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend — and the Paris Olympics, where she won the bronze medal in mixed doubles with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Dabrowski said she had found a first lump in the second half of 2023 and was initially told not to worry about it.
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“It all seems surreal,” Dabrowski wrote, saying she now has a “better grasp” of her treatment and side effects. “For a long time I wasn’t ready to expose myself to the possible attention and questions I’d have gotten before. I wanted to figure everything out and handle things privately with only those closest to me in the loop.”
Dabrowski and Routliffe won the WTA Finals at the end of this season. The pair also won the U.S. women’s doubles title in 2023.
“My mindset shifted from ‘I have to do this (play tennis and not waste my skills)’ to ‘I get to do this.’ Through this lens I find it so much easier to find joy in areas of my life I previously viewed as a heavy weight,” she said.
Dabrowski ended her post by aiming an expletive at cancer, while adding “but also, thank you.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press