Tennis legend Martina Navratilova says she is now free of throat and breast cancer

Tennis great Martina Navratilova says she is cancer-free, nearly four months after announcing she had been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer.

The Czech-American — who won a total of 59 grand slam titles across singles and doubles and is considered one the greatest players of all time — said in January that the cancer was stage 1.

“As far as they know, I’m cancer-free,” the 66-year-old told Piers Morgan for TalkTV in an excerpt of an interview to be released on Tuesday.

“I still need to do the right breast probably with radiation, but only for a couple of weeks, and that’s more preventative than anything else.”

The cancer was discovered in November last year during the WTA finals, when Navratilova noticed a swelling in her neck that did not go down.

Her representative, Mary Greenham, said that Navratilova had noticed an enlarged lymph node in her neck during the event in Texas and, when it didn’t recede, a biopsy was performed.

Those results came back as stage 1 throat cancer.

“At the same time as Martina was undergoing the tests for the throat, a suspicious form was found in her breast, which was subsequently diagnosed as cancer, completely unrelated to the throat cancer,” Ms Greenham said. 

Czech-born Navratilova — who became a US citizen in 1981 and soon afterwards came out as gay — was also diagnosed, and overcame, breast cancer back in 2010.

Throughout her career, Navratilova won 18 singles titles across the four major grand slam events, as well as 31 women’s doubles titles and 10 mixed doubles titles. 

She was ranked the number one women’s player in the world for 332 weeks and won the WTA Player of the Year seven times. 

After her retirement from professional tennis in 2006, Navratilova has worked as a tennis presenter and commentator on television and radio. 

ABC/Reuters