After chemotherapy: Carla Suarez Navarro is planning a comeback in 2021
In September this year, the Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro announced that she had been diagnosed with "Hodgkin's lymphoma" and that she would now have to undergo six months of chemotherapy. Now the 32-year-old is on the mend - and even wants to return to the WTA tour in 2021.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Dec 29, 2020, 05:12 pm
First, Carla Suarez Navarro had canceled the Western & Southern Open, which was held this year before the US Open in New York City, due to "health" reasons. On September 1st, the Spaniard addressed her fans with a video . She was diagnosed with "Hodgkin's lymphoma", a malignant tumor in the area of the lymph nodes, which must be treated with chemotherapy, the 32-year-old should announce.
Navarro has already survived a large part of this six-month chemotherapy, as she explains in an interview with Mundo Deportivo . "The treatment is responding, and that's one reason to be happy. I'm in the end, I guess I have a month and a half left. I have three chemo sessions, then we have to see if we can get radiation therapy or not "said Navarro.
The Spaniard is accordingly optimistic about the future, the disease may already be defeated at the beginning of the year. "It's a disease in principle, when it ends, it ends. It doesn't have to multiply. I guess I'll be there in February if I don't have radiation therapy," explains the 32-year-old, who says after the Always dared to diagnose, first went to the gym, but soon did his first sessions on the tennis court again.
Start with children's balls
"One of those days," Navarro recalls, she would have said to herself: "If I can do everything I do, why can't I play tennis, which I have been doing all my life?" She started with balls without a lot of air pressure, with children's balls, which initially brought positive results to light. "The truth is that it went well, it didn't bother me, I watch it and try to play between two and three times a week. I try to raise the level a little more each time, but most of all I serve it as a mental distraction and physical activity. "
Your goal is now to return to the tour in the coming season. "I want to play a Grand Slam, obviously in the second half of the year," said the Spaniard. The Olympic Games would also be a big deal for Navarro, although here she has to hope for help from her competitors. "The cut is in Roland Garros and I won't be able to play before that, my competitors have to overtake me. If I make it on the list, I would like to compete, be in the Tokyo games." According to the 32-year-old, the plan is to take part in the America Swing and complete around three to four tournaments.