Tennis had always been a big part of Sunny Logan's life, but it took on a special importance to the 10-year-old when she was diagnosed with cancer.
"Without tennis, I wouldn't have been as strong,'' she told TODAY's Jenna Bush Hager.
Logan was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, a rare cancer of the lymph nodes. But she faced the disease head-on at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where breakthrough medicine has pushed survival rates to 90 percent for the type of cancer Logan suffered from.
"She said, 'Well, if I can go to St. Jude, that's where I want to go,''' Sunny's mother, Heather Logan, told Hager.
Logan is now cancer-free, and she celebrated with a trip to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, to hit some balls on the court of champions. While she was playing, she got a surprise visit from her favorite player, tennis champion Maria Sharapova, who said she hoped to see Sunny on the professional tour one day.
"We had been talking about her all day,'' Logan told Matt Lauer live on TODAY Tuesday. "She was on the Hall of Fame board, and they had pictures of her everywhere. I was hitting some serves and I turn around, and there she is, and I was just speechless. I did not know what to do."
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