Cancer victim Kleybanova back

Alisa Kleybanova will return to the WTA Tour in Miami next month after successful treatment for cancer.

The 22-year-old Russian has not played since May 2011 and announced on her birthday last July that she was suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Kleybanova said yesterday in a message on www.wtatennis.com: “I finished my treatments in December and a couple of weeks ago I did my last tests in Italy. The treatments were successful, my doctors are happy with my health and I’m feeling great! I have started to train and right now I’m in Florida playing tennis again!!! It was physically really hard in the beginning, but it was so emotional that I didn’t want to get off the court :) This is just amazing, I’m working out every day now and enjoying it so much more than before!”

Kleybanova has dropped to 167th in the world rankings from a career high of 20th last February, but has been granted a wild card for the Sony Ericsson Open, which begins on 20 March.

Related topics: