Ryan Peniston, the tennis player who as a child won a rare cancer and today is the surprise of the circuit

Not even in your wildest dreams Ryan Peniston I would have imagined the frenzy of these last few days. Life has given the Briton obstacles that he has been able to overcome and that today make him daydream. Unknown to many, but with results such as winning against Casper Ruud and this Thursday against Francisco Cerúndolo– who made his name ring out, the tennis player is a survivor of a cancer who attacked him when he was very young.

With only one year of life, he had to fight against a particular cancer called rhabdomyosacorma. This disease attacks the muscle tissue of the skeleton or sometimes the hollow organs (bladder or uterus). Also, although it can strike at any age, it tends to appear more often in children. To leave this difficult condition behind, he had to undergo surgery to remove a tumor and then be exposed to lengthy chemotherapy. It took three years to completely stop dealing with cancer.

“It was a difficult way to start my life. Most of all it had to be tough on my parents and siblings. After that, I ran tests and checks every two years, sometimes once a year, to see if everything was okay. And here I am, “Peniston commented at the press conference.

Its beginnings and its trajectory

Born in Southend, he began playing tennis at the age of three, moving to Nice at the age of thirteen to train at the Moratoglou Academy. “I went to the academy because at that time it was very difficult to combine study and tennis. We went there for a couple of weeks and I loved it. My father asked me if I wanted to stay and I decided yes.”Peniston commented.

His first Challenger was played in 2019, in Surbiton, at that time he was out of the best 600 in the world. In September of the same year, after playing Futures – a series of tournaments at the lowest level in tennis – he finished in the top 400 in the world. In August 2020 he played his first final in Prague but was on the verge of the title. The same thing happened to him in Antalya and Ostrava, but these results helped him get into the top 200 of the rankings.

“When I was a kid, I wasn’t in the top 20 in England. I was never in the top 20. Based on training and hard work, my big break was when I was able to go to college in the US This got me taught the path I had to follow if I wanted to reach the level I was looking for. Since then, in each training session, I visualize where I want to be and what I want to achieve “, he reflected.

In Queen’s against Casper Ruud -5th in the standings- he obtained his first victory at the ATP level, in what was the prelude to a very complicated match. After advancing, beat Francisco Cerúndolo (6-0, 4-6 and 6-4) and reached the quarter-finals, where he will face Serbian Filip Krajinovíc. And from this Monday he will climb 35 positions in the standings to reach 145, the best of his career. “I was very nervous. It was my first ATP game and at home. The good thing is that I knew I had nothing to lose,” he admitted after the win against Ruud.