Beating Cancer with Tennis: One Player's Story

Ana Klein started playing tennis in 2016 and was drawn to the sport as a fun way to get exercise and a great social outlet to meet new people. Little did she know that just two short years after entering the sport, it would help her get through the toughest time in her life — breast cancer. 

Klein was first diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a very aggressive form of the disease which often results in a poor prognosis, in August of 2018. At the time of her diagnosis, she was just wrapping up her local league season as the captain of the Women’s 18 & Over 3.0 team at Roseville Lifetime. Her team was coming off a successful season and was looking forward to playoffs and their Nationals invitation.

“I talked to the team and let them know the news, and not knowing what to expect myself, told them I may or may not be joining them at Nationals, which was scheduled in October of 2018,” Klein remembered. 

With her husband, family, and team’s support, Klein started an intensive chemotherapy plan of 16 treatments, the most aggressive type administered two weeks apart, in September of 2018 and that lasted through February 2019.  

Despite Klein’s vigorous chemo schedule, she was simply not ready to put away her tennis racquet. 

“I asked my doctor if I could move one of my treatments to three weeks instead of two so I could play,” Klein said. “My oncologist didn’t like it but said if I was careful, wore a mask, kept my distance, rested as much as possible in between, and timed it to where I was playing during my low immunity time, he would allow it. So off I went to Nationals with my team.”

Not only did Klein travel to Mobile, Alabama from California, research match-ups, and compete herself, all while undergoing cancer treatment, she ended up playing in three matches, winning two of the three, and helping her team take seventh place.

“To this day, my oncologist still says that he has never had a patient with my type of cancer play a competitive sport,” Klein shared. “He called me a rock star and impressively mentally tough, attributing my love of tennis for helping me get through this.”

After making her mark on Nationals, Klein returned home to resume her treatment. Once she completed her chemo, she had double mastectomy surgery in March of 2019, followed by 25 radiation treatments every day Monday through Friday, finishing in July 2019. While she couldn’t play during her surgery and recovery, she was right back on the courts after every radiation treatment she had. 

“I don’t think tennis helped me get through my treatments. I know it did,” said Klein. “It kept me mentally and physically active.”

And her doctors could not agree more. 

“My surgeon was so impressed with my journey that she asked me to be a guest speaker at her annual breast cancer tea and talk to 250 women who were going through breast cancer or were in remission and share how they could still live a normal life, enjoy things like tennis, while fighting cancer,” Klein added.

Now two years out from completing her treatments, Klein goes in for checks every six months to ensure the cancer is gone, and she has so much gratitude for the sport and tennis community that helped her get to where she is today.

She is back to playing tennis and captaining an Adult Leagues team out of Miller Park, and recently led her Women’s 18 & Over 3.5 league team to a second appearance at Nationals with a notable sixth-place finish. 

“I think tennis found me to help me through my cancer journey,” Ana added. “I will be forever grateful for that, and I hope to be playing on the courts until I’m 80.”