Is it game over for Serena?
SERENA WILLIAMS shocked the tennis world last night with the apparent announcement that she is 20 weeks pregnant with her first child.
if confirmed, it could spell the end of the greatest career in the women’s game, which has seen the 35-year-old American win 23 Grand Slam titles.
Williams posted a photograph of herself via Snapchat with the caption ‘20 weeks’, suggesting she was in the early stages of pregnancy when winning the Australian Open in January.
She later deleted the post, with a congratulatory tweet from the WTA also being removed. Williams became engaged to social media entrepreneur Alex Ohanian before the new year and has made no secret of her desire to have children.
Williams is due to return to the world No 1 spot in next monday’s official rankings.
Should she give birth later in the summer, though, it is impossible to see her returning before 2018 — by which time she would be into her 37th year.
SERENA Williams is expecting her first child.
The tennis champion yesterday posted a photograph of her wearing a bright yellow swimsuit, in which she appeared to show off her bump, with the caption ’20 weeks’.
Miss Williams, 35, is engaged to fellow American Alexis Ohanian, a cofounder of social media site Reddit.
The 33-year-old proposed in December last year after surprising the former world number one with a trip to Rome.
Miss Williams deleted the photograph soon after posting it on messaging platform Snapchat yesterday afternoon, and a representative for
‘Something I’ve always wanted’
the player declined to comment. The timing means she would have been around eight weeks pregnant when she won her record-setting 23rd Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, beating her sister Venus in just 82 minutes.
The post prompted messages of congratulations from around the world. Taking to Twitter, the US Tennis Association said: ‘The GOAT [Greatest of All Time] herself @serenawilliams took to Snapchat to announce she’s 20 weeks pregnant! Congratulations Serena!’
Miss Williams has not played since her win in Melbourne, citing a knee injury, and is currently ranked number two in the world. It now seems unlikely she will play at Wimbledon in July.
The sportswoman has made no secret of her desire to have a family in the past.
Speaking to Glamour magazine last summer, she said: ‘I definitely want to have kids one day. That’s always something I’ve wanted as long as I could remember. And the older I get, the more I’m like, “I’m too young”. Hopefully I’ll be able to mature one of these days, get serious, and at least have them pretty fast.’
However just six days ago, she said that ‘for now’ she would be sticking with her dog.
In an Instagram post next to a picture of a book about motherhood written by singer Kelly Rowland, she wrote: ‘One of these days I hope to apply this (but for now I’ll stick to my dog Chip).’