Tennis great Martina Navratilova recently announced that she has been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer. In a statement released by her representative, the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame said her prognosis is good, and she will start treatment this month. “This double whammy is serious but still fixable, and I’m hoping for a favorable outcome,” the 66-year-old Navratilova said. “It’s going to stink for a while, but I’ll fight with all I have.”

She said she noticed an enlarged lymph node in her neck while attending the season-ending WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, in November, and a biopsy showed early-stage throat cancer. While Navratilova was undergoing tests on her throat, she said, the unrelated breast cancer was discovered. Navratilova was diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer in 2010 and had a lumpectomy.

She won 59 Grand Slam titles overall, including 31 in women’s doubles and 10 in mixed doubles. The last was a mixed doubles championship with Bob Bryan at the 2006 U.S. Open, a month shy of her 50th birthday. Navratilova initially retired in 1994 after a record 167 singles titles and 331 weeks at No. 1 in the WTA rankings. She returned to the tour to play doubles in 2000 and occasionally competed in singles.

Navratilova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000. She has worked as a T.V. analyst in recent years. The statement issued said Navratilova would not be a regular part of Tennis Channel’s coverage of the Australian Open later this month “but hopes to be able to join in from time to time” via video conference.

Navratilova won her first professional singles title in Orlando, Florida, in 1974 at 17. Upon arriving in the United States, Navratilova lived with former actress Frances Dewey Wormser and her husband Morton Wormser, a tennis enthusiast.

Navratilova was the runner-up at two major singles tournaments in 1975; the Australian Open (won by Goolagong) and the French Open (won by Chris Evert in three sets). After losing to Evert in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in September, the 18-year-old Navratilova went to the offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York City and informed them that she wished to defect from Communist Czechoslovakia.

Within a month, she received a green card and, in 1981, became a U.S. citizen. Also, in 1975, Navratilova teamed with world number one Evert to win the French Open women’s doubles title, Navratilova’s first major title outside of mixed doubles. They teamed again in 1976 to win the Wimbledon women’s doubles title over Billie Jean King and Bette Stove.

Navratilova was ranked as the world No. 1 in singles for a total of 331 weeks (second only to Steffi Graf) and a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to have held the top spot in both disciplines for over 200 weeks. Please keep Martina Navratilova and her family in your prayers during this challenging time.