{"id":3834,"date":"2018-06-15T16:35:47","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T16:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mariabueno.org\/indextemp.php\/?p=3834"},"modified":"2018-06-18T10:52:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T10:52:45","slug":"a-highly-revered-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mariabueno.org\/indextemp.php\/a-highly-revered-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"A highly revered Champion…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brasil – 05\/12\/2009 – Foto: Djalma Vass\u00e3o\/Gazeta Press<\/p><\/div>\n

Since the weekend tributes, both public and personal, have been pouring in following the death of Maria Esther Bueno, a highly revered champion who was much loved around the world.<\/p>\n

This great champion battled cancer for over a year and a half, bravely enduring the indignity of treatment very privately, but finally succumbing a week ago.<\/p>\n

She will be sadly missed by so many, especially at all the clubs that she loved to visit and to play at.<\/p>\n

An insect bite in February 2016 that refused to fully heal was surgically removed in early 2017 and found to be malignant, resulting in a course of radiotherapy.<\/p>\n

While it was thought she was in remission last summer and she\u00a0made it over for Wimbledon, hitting at the club several times, tests later unfortunately revealed that the cancer had metastasised elsewhere and she underwent further radiotherapy treatment.<\/p>\n

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She continued to play up until April this year when she felt pains in her shoulder which, at first, she thought to be an injury but, after more tests, it was discovered that the cancer had spread to other organs of the body.<\/p>\n

Maria was admitted into hospital in S\u00e3o Paulo on 11 May for pain control and to start immunotherapy treatment, and remained optimistic about returning to London for Wimbledon this summer, as she had done for so many years.<\/p>\n

Despite all the efforts of her medical team, Maria died on Friday 8 June, age 78, peaceful at the last.<\/p>\n

The funeral took place the following day, and her body lay in the Oval Office of the Government House of S\u00e3o Paulo where mourners paid their respects before being later laid to rest in a private ceremony at the\u00a0Cemit\u00e9rio da Consola\u00e7\u00e3o,\u00a0the oldest necropolis still in operation in the city where many public figures are buried.<\/p>\n

\"\"Three days of mourning were declared by the Governor of the State of S\u00e3o Paulo, and she received tributes from, amongst others, the President of Brazil, the Olympic Committee, Tennis Confederations, clubs and many, many friends from all over the world.<\/p>\n

French Open organisers paid tribute to Maria with a minute\u2019s applause ahead of the women\u2019s singles final at Roland Garros last Sunday, and she was honoured on the big screen of the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna at the start of the Brazil v Austria friendly ahead of the World Cup on Monday.<\/p>\n

A Memorial Mass was held at Nossa Senhora do Brasil, the church she attended every week in S\u00e3o Paolo on Friday 15 June, attended by the Chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Philip Brook.<\/p>\n