Tennis star Gabriela Dabrowski has revealed she was receiving treatment for breast cancer while continuing to compete at the highest level.
Dabrowski reached the women’s doubles final at Wimbledon alongside Erin Routliffe in July, just three months after she was diagnosed with cancer in April. The Canadian underwent two surgeries and took a break from the sport, before returning to action with Routliffe in June.
The pair won the Nottingham Open, beating Harriet Dart and Diane Parry in the final, before they were defeated by Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townes in the final at Wimbledon. Dabrowski has now revealed she delayed her treatments to play at Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics.
She then had radiation therapy after returning home, before competing alongside Routliffe at the US Open in August. In a post on social media, Dabrowski opened up about her journey, writing: “How can something so small cause such a big problem?
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“This is the question I asked myself when I was diagnosed with breast cancer back in mid-April. I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am okay and I will be okay. Early detection saves lives. I can wholeheartedly agree with this…
“In the spring of 2023 I felt a lump in my left breast during a self-exam. A few months later, a doctor told me it was nothing and not to worry. So I didn’t. Time went on, and in spring 2024, I thought the lump was a little bigger.
“During our WTA comprehensive physicals, a WTA doctor told me she wasn’t sure what it was, and to go and get it scanned.” Dabrowski then had a mammogram, ultrasound and a biopsy before a doctor informed her that she had cancer.
Dabrowski finished runner-up in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon after delaying treatment to compete
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Image:
Robert Prange/Getty Images)
“These are words you never expect to hear, and in an instant, your life or the life of a loved one turns upside down,” she added. However, Dabrowski was determined to continue competing while undergoing treatment and ended 2024 on the “highest note possible” by winning the WTA Finals with Routliffe.
“It all seems surreal,” she continued. “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. 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.”
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