When Victoria Duval learned last year that she had cancer, the only thing she knew to do was win.
Duval, then 18, received a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, the day before her first qualifying match at Wimbledon. Despite the news, she stayed and played.
“I didn’t really see another way out at the time, other than to try to win every match to avoid going home, because I didn’t want to have to face the reality of what was going on,” Duval said last week in an interview.
“I didn’t really realize how brave I was until I came home and everyone in my family and my friends, they told me that if they got told the same thing the day before they had to play a match, they wouldn’t have been able to finish, because that’s like the biggest emotional blow you can hear.