Navratilova says she is fine after cancer diagnosis

ROME (AP) — Martina Navratilova is doing well after being diagnosed with throat and breast cancer.

“I’ve been through a very difficult year, but now I’m fine,” the 18-time Grand Slam champion and Tennis Hall of Fame inductee said on Sunday at the Italian Open after receiving the Golden Racket for her contribution to the sport.

The 66-year-old tennis player assured in January that the prognosis was positive and that treatment would begin that month. She commented that she noticed an enlarged lymph node in her neck during the WTA Finals in November in Fort Worth, Texas and the biopsy confirmed that she was in an early stage of throat cancer.

While performing tests on her throat, Navratilova said they discovered unrelated early-stage breast cancer.

Navratilova returned as a television analyst with the Tennis Channel in March and said in an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV that, according to the doctors, “as far as they know, I don’t have cancer anymore” and that “I was ready” after additional radiation treatment.

Navratilova accepted the award in Italian in front of the public at the Campo Centrale.

“Tennis gave me an amazing life that I am grateful for,” he said. “I always tried to give something back while playing and also in my retirement.”

Navratilova reached four singles finals at the Foro Italico and won the doubles tournament three times. Her last title in Rome was in 2003, at the age of 46, together with Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In total, he won 59 Grand Slam titles, including 31 doubles and 10 mixed doubles. His last mixed doubles championship came alongside Bob Bryan at the 2006 US Open, shortly before his 50th birthday.

Navratilova first retired in 1994 with 167 singles titles and after spending 331 weeks as the WTA number one. She returned in 2000 to compete in doubles and occasionally singles.