Canadian tennis star Gabriela Dabrowski revealed Tuesday that she underwent two surgeries to treat breast cancer following a diagnosis in April.
The three-time Grand Slam doubles champion shared her story on social media, disclosing that she played through her diagnosis in a year she won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.
“I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am OK and I will be OK,” Dabrowski wrote in an Instagram post. “Early detection saves lives. I can wholeheartedly agree with this.”
Dabrowski kept the diagnosis private for months because she wasn’t ready to expose herself to the ensuing questions and attention.
The 32-year-old from Ottawa said she started to recognize she was part of “something much bigger than myself,” sharing posts about the importance of early detection and a healthy lifestyle during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
Dabrowski said she now has a better grasp of her treatment, the side-effects and how to manage them.
By telling her story, Dabrowski said she wanted to emphasize the quality of life a person can maintain when cancer is detected early.
“Early on in my diagnosis I was afraid of cancer becoming part of my identity forever. I don’t feel that way anymore,” she said. “It is a privilege to be able to call myself a survivor.”
Dabrowski first felt a lump in her left breast during a self-exam in the spring of 2023, but a doctor told her a few months later not to worry about it.
A year later, she felt the lump get bigger and a WTA doctor told her to get it scanned after a physical.
Dabrowski then underwent a series of examinations before a radiologist said the lump looked concerning and called her in for a biopsy the following morning.
“The preliminary results came back that day: cancer,” she said. “These are words you never expect to hear, and in an instant your life or the life of a loved one turns upside down.”
Dabrowski didn’t let cancer affect her on-court performance.
She had a three-month layoff after losing the Miami Open doubles final in late March, but she returned to compete in June at the Nottingham Open, which she won alongside partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand.
Two weeks earlier, she couldn’t lift her arm high enough to serve, needing help from a coach to toss the ball.
Dabrowski also had a slight delay in her treatment so she could compete at Wimbledon in July and the Paris Olympics in August.
She teamed with Routliffe to reach the final at Wimbledon before claiming the Olympic bronze alongside Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime in mixed doubles. Dabrowski also won the doubles title at the season-ending WTA Finals with Routliffe.
“A great reminder that you have no idea what people are going through,” Routliffe wrote on Instagram. “Here’s to more smiling in 2025.”
Dabrowski said the experience has shifted her perspective on life and her career.
“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,” she said. “Loving parents and friends, amazing coaches, a doubles partner who stuck by me, a real team, access to health-care experts, and to play a game for a living
“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.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2024.