Wimbledon finalist Gabriela Dabrowski has heartbreakingly revealed she played through the 2024 season while receiving urgent treatment for breast cancer.
The 32-year-old Canadian had kept her diagnosis in April a secret but detailed the battle she has been through in a lengthy Instagram post.
Dabrowski said: ‘I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am OK and I will be OK. Early detection saves lives.’
Having first found a lump in the spring of 2023, which she was told was nothing to worry about, she had a scan a year later and was informed she had cancer.
Dabrowski did not play a match in April and May but returned in June, winning her first tournament back with partner Erin Routliffe in Nottingham.
She delayed treatment in order to compete at Wimbledon, where she and Routliffe finished as runners-up, and the Olympics, while the pair ended the season by winning the WTA Finals, leaving Dabrowski ranked third in the world.
Gabriela Dabrowski (right) has revealed she has secretly been battling breast cancer this year
The tennis star, currently ranked No 3 in the world in doubles, revealed the news on Instagram
In Paris in August, Dabrowski walked away from the Olympic Games with a bronze medal, having partnered Felix Auger-Aliassime in the mixed doubles.
The Canadian duo beat their Dutch rivals in straight sets to secure a medal, and at the time Dabrowski described the fortnight as the ‘experience of a lifetime’.
‘It all seems surreal,’ she wrote. ‘Why am I sharing my story now? 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.
‘There were so many unknowns and so much learning and research to be done. Currently I’m in a place where I have a better grasp of my treatment, side effects and how to manage them.’
In the bombshell post, Dabrowski revealed that she underwent two surgeries on the cancer at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, and just weeks before playing at Wimbledon couldn’t lift her left arm.
Dabrowski opened up on the treatment she has been receiving for her cancer
Dabrowski (right) and her partner Erin Routliffe recently won the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia
Dabrowski also won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, playing in the mixed doubles
In the Instagram post, she revealed that her coach Patrick was ‘tossing the ball for me on my serve’.
Incredibly, she went on to compete in Nottingham, Wimbledon and at the Olympics, winning the former, reaching the final at SW19 and then getting bronze in Paris.
From there, she went on to have radiation treatment and endocrine therapy, before incredibly going on to win the WTA Finals and end the year as No. 3 in the world.
‘My intentions in sharing some of my experience are to emphasise the quality of life one can maintain when cancer is detected early, when you have access to doctors and other health care practitioners who are highly skilled and dedicated to their craft, when you take care of your mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing, and when you surround yourself with people who truly have your back (and your front),’ she explained.
Dabrowski (right) plays a shot during the Wimbledon final, in the middle of her cancer battle
A recent snap from Dabrowski’s social media shows her dressed up for a friend’s wedding
Dabrowski also revealed that ‘losing everything I’d worked for my entire life was a real possibility’.
The tennis star also paid tribute to her doubles partner Routliffe, who she is expected to compete alongside at the upcoming Australian Open in January.
Revealing her gratitude for ‘what I had’, she thanked her ‘loving parents and friends, amazing coaches, a doubles partner who stuck by me, a real team, and access to health care experts’.
In conclusion, she wrote: ‘To cancer I say f*** you, but also, thank you.’
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