Nicole Gibbs to skip rest of clay swing due to salivary gland cancer

Nicole Gibbs is skipping the remainder of the clay-court swing, including the French Open, due to a rare cancer diagnosis, mucoepidermoid carcinoma.

The former My Tennis Life star announced on Twitter she's scheduled to undergo surgery this coming Friday to remove a growth at the top on her mouth.

Despite the cancer scare, Gibbs is confident she will be able to return to tennis soon.

"Fortunately this cancer has a great prognosis and my surgeon is confident that surgery alone will be sufficient treatment," Gibbs wrote. "He even okayed me to play an extra couple of tournament these past few weeks which served as a nice distraction."

Over the past three weeks, the 26-year-old has competed in a series of Challenger tournaments played on green clay, reaching one final and a quarterfinal. In 2017, she was featured on Tennis Channel's  My Tennis Life.