Serena Williams has announced via a snapchat photo caption that she is pregnant with her first child. The multiple Grand Slam winner shared a photo with a caption “twenty weeks.”
The American, 35, has been engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian since December. Since that time she has won the Australian Open in January, moving up to No.2 in the WTA rankings behind Angelique Kerber. Williams held the No.1 ranking after defeating sister Venus in the Australian Open final, but she has not played since with a knee injury forcing her out of her intended schedule of playing in Indian Wells and Miami.
Serena posted the news on Snapchat yesterday, though she quickly removed the post shortly afterwards. TMZ has however confirmed that an unnamed source has confirmed the news. Besides the photo on Snapchat and Instagram there has been no official word from the Williams camp, and no statement from any of her press team.
If the speculation is true, it is likely that Williams was pregnant when she won her 23rd grand slam title at the Australian Open in January. She hasn’t play a competitive match since January due to a knee injury.
Regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players in the Open Era, Williams has won 72 titles on the WTA Tour and has spent 316 weeks as world No.1, a position she is set to return to next week.
Williams’ pregnancy would put her participation in the rest of the year’s Grand Slam events into doubt, and may spark questions about how long she intends to continue to play. Players including Casey Dellacqua, and Tatjana Maria have continued careers after having had children, whilst Kim Clijsters won three of her Grand Slam titles after the birth of her daughter.
Twitter responds
Whilst the world is waiting for official confirmation from Williams or her media team, some has also took to social media to congratulate the 35-year-old. The WTA briefly tweeted the American congratulations before deleting their post due to lack of official word. Meanwhile, others have already sent their well wishes.
.@serenawilliams will have a new pride & joy to hug and call her own soon! Congratulations on the exciting baby announcement! #USOpen pic.twitter.com/NXxlY4vC6q
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) April 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/FedCup/status/854719546254651392
