The Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova used Instagram to share the exciting news that she and her fiancé Alexander Gilkes are expecting their first child together.
Maria took to Instagram to announce her pregnancy to her 4.2M followers on her 35th birthday.
With a photo of the athlete holding her growing belly on a beautiful sunny beach, she captioned the post, “Precious beginnings!!! Eating birthday cake for two has always been my speciality”.
The tennis star was on a getaway for Easter and to celebrate her birthday.
Friends and fans rushed to the comments to share congratulatory messages with the mum-to-be, including a host of professional athletes.
Among the athletes to wish Maria well was American surfer Lakey Peterson. She wrote, “Awe congrats Maria!!”. Argentinian polo player Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Figueras penned, “Amazing! Congratulations to you both”.
Former high-jump star Delfina Blaquier and wife to Ignacio Figueras added, “Yeyyyy Masha!!!! So happy for you guys!”.
Sharapova announced her engagement to British businessman, Alexander Gilkes in December 2020 with a post captioned, “I said yes from the first day we met. This was our little secret, wasn’t it”. The two first went public with their relationship in 2018.
Maria retired from playing tennis professionally in February 2020. The star has played at competitions such as Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and at the Olympics. During the London Olympics in 2012 she won a silver medal.
She had previously been ranked the number one player in singles by the Women’s Tennis Association, and had defeated former world number one player Venus Williams in 2005.
She achieved the tennis Grand Slam, one of only 10 women to be awarded this title, and the only Russian woman to win it.
