Martina Navratilova grateful for support after cancer diagnosis

Tennis great Martina Navratilova revealed on Monday (2 January) that she has been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer.

The winner of 59 Grand Slam titles - 18 of those in singles - told the WTA Tour site, "This double whammy is serious but still fixable, and I’m hoping for a favourable outcome. It’s going to stink for a while but I’ll fight with all have I got."

The 66-year-old, who became the oldest Olympic tennis player in history when she made her debut at Athens 2004, underwent tests after finding an enlarged lymph node in her neck during November's WTA Finals.

Doctors found Stage 1 throat cancer and Stage 1 breast cancer with Navratilova starting treatment this month. She had been previously treated for breast cancer back in 2010.

The news provoked a swift reaction on social media with several of her rivals and successors wishing her well in her recovery.

One of the first messages came from her former doubles partner and fellow gay rights activist Billie Jean King.

Navratilova's career was inextricably linked with that of Chris Evert who was her biggest rival during the 1970s and 80s.

They actually won two women's doubles Slam titles together - the 1975 French Open and Wimbledon 1976 - but they dominated women's singles tennis for a decade before the emergence of Steffi Graf.

The pair have been friends for many years, and Evert acknowledged the support Navratilova gave her last year when she underwent chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.

Four-time Olympian Carla Suarez Navarro, who recently retired permanently having returned to the tour following successful treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma, also sent her support along with Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig.

Navratilova still holds the record of nine Wimbledon singles titles, winning her first in 1978 and her last in 1990.

In the Open era, she is one clear of Roger Federer and two ahead of Graf, Serena Williams and Pete Sampras.