Serena Williams announces pregnancy – 12 weeks after winning the Australian Open

Serena Williams has announced she is expecting her first child with fiance Alexis Ohanian, hinting at her news in a Snapchat message with the caption "20 weeks".

A representative has now confirmed the tennis star is due to give birth this autumn.

The timing indicates Williams, 35, was about two months pregnant when she won her seventh Australian Open Grand Slam title in Melbourne at the end of January, "further adding to her reputation as one of the greatest athletes of all time," says CNN.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Williams is set to marry Reddit founder Ohanian later this year. The pair announced their engagement in December following a low-profile courtship which took many fans by surprise.

Current world number one Angelique Kerber, who is due to relinquish the top spot to Williams in Monday's Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranking reshuffle, offered hearty congratulations to her on-court rival.

If Williams does decide to seek another Grand Slam title following the birth of her first child, she will likely do so at the 2018 French Open, says the BBC's Russell Fuller.

As a "useful guide", he notes, former world number one Victoria Azarenka gave birth in December last year but was back training by March and will compete in major tournaments at the end of July.

Williams holds 23 Grand Slam singles titles and has been ranked world number one on seven occasions.