Serena Williams posted a photo of herself on Wednesday suggesting she is pregnant. The photo was deleted from Snapchat shortly afterward but not before it was shared on social media. A little later, a spokeswoman for Williams confirmed that the Tennis player is indeed 20 weeks pregnant. Kelly Bush Novak added that Williams is due to give birth in the fall.
Fans of the tennis champion and celebrities were surprised and happy when they saw the posting even before the pregnancy was confirmed for the highest-paid female athlete in the world.
The well-known tennis player gets almost $29 million in salary and sponsorship money.
Now that she is expecting, officials believe more corporate sponsors will want her to advertise their products.
Last tennis match
The 35-year-old tennis champion has not competed since winning her 23rd Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open on January 28. Since the news of her pregnancy was announced, people had done the math and calculated that if she is 20 weeks pregnant now, then she would have been about two months pregnant when she won the title.
Returning to tennis after giving birth?
Spokeswoman Novak confirmed that Williams would not play tennis again this year. Before she found out she was expecting, she had planned to return to tennis in 2018. Because the baby is due in the fall, the new mother might not return in 2018.
Other female tennis players have returned to the game and have been successful after giving birth, but none of them were as old as Serena. In fact, they were much younger. Two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka gave birth last December. The 27-year-old mother is returning to compete in July when her son, Leo, will be seven months old.
When she was 33, Margaret Court returned in 1973 after giving birth to a son, Danny, in 1972. Kim Clijsters gave birth to her daughter, Jada, in 2008. She returned to tennis as a mother at the age of 26. She won in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She retired in 2012 at 29.
Now that Williams' pregnancy has been confirmed, she has received congratulatory messages on social media.
It was on December 29, 2016, when the same type of messages were sent to Serena and Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit when they became engaged.
The sister of Venus Williams has been competing in tennis since she was 14 years old. Serena has competed against her sister many times. Both sisters are well known for the winning titles and honors of every kind in the tennis world. However, Serena will soon find out that there is no title more rewarding than that of being a mother.
