Serena Williams, 35, the world’s highest paid female athlete is pregnant. A snippet of her protruding belly was shown in a picture on social media site Snapchat, posing in a mirror with the message: “20 weeks”, before deleting it.
“I’m happy to confirm Serena is expecting a baby this fall,” said her Los Angeles-based publicist Kelly Bush Novak. The confirmation came hours after the Snapchat post.
If Williams is 20 weeks into her term, that would mean she was about 8 weeks pregnant when she captured her record 23rd Grand Slam tournament title at the Australian Open in January.
Her victory over older sister Venus Williams broke a tie with Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam singles championships in the sport’s modern era. Serena Williams has not played since.
She is second only to Australian Margaret Court on the list of women’s all-time Grand Slam singles titles leaders – Court won 24 titles between 1960 and 1973. Court, who won the singles Grand Slam in 1970, gave birth to her first child in March 1972, aged 29, and returned to win three of the four Grand Slam events in 1973.
Serena Williams with the 2017 Australian Open title
Williams is the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam singles title and still dominates the tour at an age when most players have retired.
The Belgian player Kim Clijsters retired and had a child before coming back at age 26 and winning three Grand Slam titles as a mother. Australians Evonne Goolagong and Margaret Court also won Grand Slam titles after having children. Former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 27, missed most of the 2016 season to have a baby and is expected to return to the tour this summer.
Williams will miss the rest of the season, having not played since triumph in Melbourne, citing a knee injury. Williams will sit sit out the rest of the 2017 season and return to competition in 2018, her publicist, Kelly Bush Novak, said in a statement.
Williams, who will return to world number one next week, would be eligible to retain her ranking under the WTA special ranking rule if she is ready to play her first tournament within 12 months of giving birth.
Willias is engaged to the co-founder of community news and chat site Reddit, Alexis Ohanian.
We are very unlikely to see her compete in another Grand Slam before the French Open of 2018. That event will take place four months before her 37th birthday – but do not write off a woman who will return to world number one on Monday.
