Chris Evert Returns to ESPN

Chris Evert on ESPN
Chris Evert on set for ESPN’s Australian Open coverage. (Image credit: Kelly Backus/ESPN Images)

Tennis great Chris Evert returned to ESPN's analyst roster Friday (July 1) after time off to be treated for ovarian cancer, which took the life of her sister.

Evert was analyzing ESPN’s Wimbledon coverage of the match between number three-ranked Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Diane Parry of France. She was welcomed back by her longtime ESPN booth partner Cliff  Drysdale.

Said that after six rounds of chemotherapy and two surgeries, Evert said she was healthy and would not have returned if she wasn't ready for action, as it were. She also credited the experience of her sister with the fact that the disease was caught at stage 1.

Evert joined ESPN in 2011 after a hall of fame career on the courts.

Evert won 18 major championships in singles, including three Wimbledon titles. She won at least one of the four major championships for 13 years in a row and ended her career with more than 150 titles and the best win-loss record 1,309-146 (.900), the best of any player, male or female. ■

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.