Gabriela Dabrowski, a WTA doubles star, competed and thrived while undergoing breast cancer treatments in 2024.
The 32-year-old Canadian announced the news Tuesday on Instagram.
“How can something so small cause such a big problem? This is the question I asked myself when I was diagnosed with breast cancer back in mid-April,” she wrote. “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.”
Dabrowski went on to detail how she initially found a lump in her left breast during a self-exam in 2023, but a doctor subsequently dismissed the issue. When she felt the lump growing this past spring, a WTA doctor advised her to undergo a mammogram, which led to the cancer diagnosis.
She underwent two surgeries in Jacksonville but took a “slight delay in further treatment to be able to compete at Wimbledon and the Olympics,” then continued to undergo radiation amid tournaments.
Dabrowski teamed with New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe to finish as runners-up at Wimbledon, and Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime captured the Olympic mixed doubles bronze medal for Canada in Paris.
At the season-ending WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dabrowski and Routliffe won the championship. En route to the title, Dabrowski knocked pink tennis balls to fans, seeking to raise breast-cancer awareness, though she had yet to discuss her personal connection.
“It all seems surreal,” Dabrowski 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. …
“My intentions in sharing some of my experience are to emphasize the quality of life one can maintain when cancer is detected early, when you have access to doctors and other healthcare 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).”
–Field Level Media
