US tennis pro Nicole Gibbs has cancer; to miss French Open

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Nicole Gibbs of the United States returns a ball to Jang Su-jeong of South Korea during their first round match of the Korea Open tennis championships. (Lee Jin-man/AP)

American tennis player Nicole Gibbs says she will miss the French Open because of surgery for salivary gland cancer.

The 26-year-old Gibbs wrote on Twitter that the procedure is scheduled for Friday and her goal is to return for Wimbledon qualifying in late June.

Gibbs, who was born in Ohio and is based in California, reached the third round at the 2014 U.S. Open and 2017 Australian Open. Her career-best ranking was 68th in 2016. She is currently 116th. She won NCAA singles and team titles at Stanford.

Gibbs tweeted Monday that a growth on the roof of her mouth was discovered at the dentist about a month ago. She says her surgeon is "confident that surgery alone will be sufficient treatment."

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