Chris Evert Won't Be Part of 2024 Australian Open Coverage After Cancer Recurrence

Tennis legend and current ESPN analyst Chris Evert will not be a part of the network's coverage of the 2024 Australian Open, she announced Friday.

Evert said in a statement that she has been re-diagnosed with cancer and has begun another round of chemotherapy, which will keep her out of the Australian Open. She added that she will be ready for the remainder of the Grand Slam season, which includes the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

Evert was initially diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2021 and she revealed the diagnosis a month later in an ESPN story co-written by her friend and ESPN journalist Chris McKendry.

The 68-year-old wrote that she went to get tested for cancer after doctors told her she tested positive for a variant of the BRCA1 gene, which could increase the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer in women.

Evert's sister, Jeanne, had the variant and died in February 2020 after developing ovarian cancer.

In a September 2022 interview with Amna Nawaz of PBS, Evert said there was a 90 to 95 percent chance the cancer would not return after she underwent a hysterectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove the uterus.

In January 2023, Evert announced she was cancer free, confirming that there was a 90 percent chance the cancer wouldn't return after undergoing six rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, in addition to the hysterectomy.

Evert made her tennis debut at 16 in the 1971 U.S. Open and went on to win 18 Grand Slam titles, 157 singles titles and 32 doubles titles before retiring in September 1989 following the US Open.

Evert joined ESPN in 2011 and has been a staple in the network's Grand Slam coverage since.

The 2024 Australian Open will run from Jan. 14 to Jan. 28 in Melbourne.