Judy: As the U.S. Open tennis
tournament continues this week
in New York, we turn to a
conversation amna nawaz had
there with tennis legend Chris
evert.
Evert's win-loss record in
singles matches is the best of
any pro player, male or female,
in history.
But perhaps her toughest match
is taking on ovarian cancer,
often known as "The silent
killer."
Amna: This is where you must
have so many memories.
Chris: Yes, I won six times.
Amna: Chris evert dominated
women's tennis in the 1970's and
1980's.
Her career stats are staggering.
She won a record six U.S. Open
titles, tied only by Serena
Williams.
Seven French open titles.
18 major championships in all.
Became the first player, male or
female, to win 1000 singles
matches.
And to this day, holds the
record for the second-most
career wins, behind Martina
navratilova.
Evert grew up in a tennis family
in Florida.
Her dad taught all the kids to
play on public courts.
Now 67, and herself the mother
of three sons, evert spent most
of her life in the white-hot
spotlight.
She became known for her tough,
seemingly unemotional outer
shell.
But nothing, she says, could
have prepared her for the loss
of her sister, Jeanne evert
Dubin, who played on the tour
with Chris for a while.
Jeanne's ovarian cancer was
detected late.
She lived for two more years and
died in 2020.
Jeanne had tested negative for
the harmful variant of the bcra1
gene, but her blood was stored
in a lab, in case knowledge or
data of new variants became
available and as genetic testing
evolved.
Two years after her death,
Jeanne's blood tested brca
positive.
A warning bell for possible
ovarian or breast cancer
predisposition in the family.
A call from her doctor took
Chris evert's life down an
unexpected path, ovarian cancer,
but caught early, stage 1c.
Today, evert is back courtside
as a commentator for ESPN,
coaching and mentoring the next
generation.
We talked about her journey, her
health, and what's ahead.
It's been three months since you
finished your chemotherapy.
How are you feeling today?
Chris: I'm feeling a lot better
than three months ago.
Let's put it that way.
I mean, you know, as time goes
on and I'm able to get a little
more energy, exercise a little
bit more, I'm feeling better and
better.
Amna: I think a lot of people
know chemotherapy is brutal.
How did you get through it?
Chris: Andy, my former husband,
took me to all six chemos and we
just you know, he was really
supportive.
I had that for like five days,
and then I would have two weeks
of feeling okay.
And I could go to my tennis
academy and coach and, and I
could do pretty much normal
things.
So I feel very lucky.
Amna: Lucky not only because
they caught her cancer early but
because they caught it at all.
Chris: The geneticist called and
said, we retested Jeannie's
blood and another variant has
come up and now she's brca
positive.
So you're going to have to take
the brca test.
And so all of our siblings took
it.
I went the next day and took the
brca test and 10 days later
discovered that I was positive.
I went to the doctor, he said,
okay, you have to have a
hysterectomy.
You don't need the reproductive
organs.
So the best thing, the safest
thing is just to get everything
out.
I encourage anybody, any woman
not to be afraid of having a
hysterectomy.
But what happened was
surprising, after that, my
doctor called me three days
later and said, we are really
shocked about this, but our
findings are that you had
ovarian cancer and you had
cancer in your fallopian tubes.
And I was like, whoa, but I
didn't feel anything.
And that's why this is an
insidious, ugly cancer, because
you don't feel any effects
whatsoever.
And many times when women are
diagnosed, they're already in
stage four.
Amna: You have just gone through
a full hysterectomy.
Chris: Yeah.
Amna: What are you thinking?
Chris: I think I just called on
my sister's strength.
Four or five days later my
doctor is calling, I have good
news.
And so, I mean, I was so
relieved and but I got a second
opinion.
So right now they're looking at
90% to 95% chance that that
cancer will not come back.
Amna: What's it like for you to
say that number?
Chris: I wish it was 100%, but I
feel very grateful.
Because of my sister's death,
I'm alive.
Amna: Your sister was diagnosed
so late.
And she lived for another two
years, I believe, after that?
Chris: Yes.
Amna: Do you feel like you got
to say everything to her you
needed to say?
Chris: No.
I don't think you ever feel that
way.
She was like the wind beneath my
wings, you know, that song?
And she was so proud of me and
supportive of me, and never
envious or jealous.
She was just a wonderful sister
and I wish I could I could have
told her more.
But, you know, sometimes when
somebody is really sick, you
know, that's not the time to
tell them, because then they
start to feel worse.
They know it's the end.
But I think she knows.
I mean, I talk to her every day
and I think she knows that now.
Amna: What's one thing you wish
you could tell her today?
Chris: That I would tell her?
Oh god.
You just know I asked these
questions.
Oh, my god, I'm sorry.
How strong she was and that she
never complained.
And she had ports and she had
incisions all over her body and
she was down to 80 pounds.
And I saw her go through this
and she would either be quiet or
she tried to muster up a smile.
Amna: You are making me cry too.
Chris: No, it's good.
I want to be emotional.
Amna: This vulnerability is
something evert spent decades
shielding from public view.
I went back and I read some of
the earlier coverage of your
career, the way the mostly male
press corps, I think would talk
about you and write about you.
And there were photographers
saying, oh, she's impossible to
take a good picture of because
she never smiles. And they gave
you labels like ice princess.
Chris: Look, I grew up when I
grew up and started playing on
the tour.
I was 15 years old.
And the more I read that, the
more I got to be that way.
I never had the freedom, I
think, to develop on my own
terms because I always had the
press saying I was somebody
else.
When I look at the young women
today on the court, I see
they've come a long way.
They're fearless, they're
emotional, they have a lot of
power, they feel the power, they
have a lot of respect.
Amna: You look at the way Serena
has navigated her career, you
look at Naomi Osaka having
conversations around mental
health, protecting their own
privacy, all these kinds of
things.
Do you ever look at that and
say, I wish I'd had that?
Chris: I grew up in the 1960's
and played in the 1970's.
There are taboo subjects.
You didn't talk about it.
You didn't talk about, you know,
being gay and you didn't talk
about controversial subjects at
all.
That was the way the society
was.
The culture was here in America,
maybe here in the world.
But now women are just owning
themselves and they're and
they're empowering themselves
and we' reaching, you know,
more and more equality with the
men.
Amna: How would you describe the
place that the game holds today
in your life.
Chris: I have so many ways of
being involved in the game. I
mean, I love telling people,
informing them of the wisdom of
me being on center court in the
finals, what it feels like, what
the pressure feels like.
I love that.
I think what I love even more is
the mentoring part.
I'm very involved with the usa
foundation, which is all about
under-resourced kids, you know,
combining tennis and education
and giving them a safe place to
go to after school, talking to
them, mentoring them, seeing the
joy on their face.
An extension further, I have my
own tennis academy with my
brother.
But still, the same applies.
The mentoring.
I try to explain to them to
embrace the pressure, to go with
it and not to try to fight it.
I've gotten a lot of wonderful
things out of tennis.
And now I'm feeling probably
better by giving and sharing my
experiences and knowing I'm
helping kids.
To me, that's the most important
thing at this last third of my
life.
Amna: Analyzing tennis matches,
and mentoring the next
generation, at some 250 programs
for the U.S. Tennis association