Tennis superstar Serena Williams is pregnant and expecting to deliver her first baby this northern autumn, her spokeswoman said on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
A short statement from her representative said: "I'm happy to confirm Serena is expecting a baby this Fall."
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Serena Williams confirms she is pregnant
After sparking pregnancy rumours with a Snapchat photo, tennis champion Serena Williams confirms she is expecting a child later this year.
Since her debut in 1995,Williams has assembled the greatest career in the history of women's tennis. But is that career now over? It has to be a possibility, after Williams revealed that she was pregnant.
The manner of the revelation was as atypical as everything else in Williams' story. She used the social-networking service Snapchat to post a picture of herself in a bright yellow bathing suit, with the simple caption "20 weeks", but then took the message down soon afterwards, which may suggest that she had not intended the news to go public just yet.
The story spread quickly across the internet and soon the congratulations were flooding in from all quarters, both for Williams and for her fiance Alexis Ohanian, the online entrepreneur who founded the reddit network.
Williams' fellow professionals will surely count among the most enthusiastic well-wishers.
She has won two of the last three grand slam titles, and 10 of 19 since teaming up with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, in 2012.
Even at 35, with knees that are missing most of their cartilage, she is still comfortably the world's best player. Ironically, the complexities of the ranking system mean that she will climb one place to No.1 next week without even playing.
The desire in the Williams family is remarkable, as witnessed by Serena's sister Venus, who remains just outside the top 10 at the age of 36, despite suffering from the auto-immune condition Sjogren's syndrome.
But would the younger Williams want to fight her way back to the top of the game in 2018, having become a mother some time around the US Open in early September?
The real question relates to motivation: how much would she want her career back? Even Williams herself may not know the answer to that one yet.
However the story develops, the news will only add to the pressure on the women's tour, which has had to put up with so many unscheduled absences over the past year.
Maria Sharapova is due back from her doping ban next week in Stuttgart, but Williams is the second leading player to fall pregnant, after Victoria Azarenka, whose son, Leo, was born shortly before Christmas. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has also been recuperating after the knife attack she suffered in December.
One unexpected beneficiary of Williams' news could be Sharapova, whose chances of receiving wildcards for the next two grand slams have surely risen with the likely unavailability of her great nemesis.
Williams won the Australian Open in January to move to 23 major titles, one ahead of Steffi Graf.
Reuters, The Telegraph, London
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