{"id":2060,"date":"2017-04-19T19:39:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T23:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2017-04-20T11:43:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T15:43:29","slug":"confirmed-serena-williams-pregnancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2017\/04\/19\/confirmed-serena-williams-pregnancy\/","title":{"rendered":"Confirmed: Serena Williams Announces Pregnancy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Serena Williams<\/strong> has\u00a0finally confirmed she is pregnant after much speculation.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-time <strong>Grand Slam<\/strong> champion\u00a0hinted at the pregnancy after posting a photograph on Snapchat accompanied by the caption &#8220;20 weeks&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Within half an hour the picture was deleted, but not before thousands of people took to social media to congratulate Williams and fiance <strong>Alexis Ohanian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A lack of official confirmation and the removal of the photograph led many to question whether Williams was actually pregnant.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Serena Williams is pregnant!! \u2764\ufe0f\u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/u2RfhSzlcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/u2RfhSzlcB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JarettSays\/status\/854715386838736896\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nAfter many hours of speculation, however, the 35-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2017\/apr\/19\/serena-williams-pregnant-snapchat-20-weeks\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finally confirmed through her spokesperson<\/a> that she is in fact 20 weeks pregnant, per The Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>She is due to give birth some time around September and will miss all three of the remaining Grand Slams in 2017.<\/p>\n<h2>Serena Williams won the Australian Open while two months pregnant<\/h2>\n<p>The length of the pregnancy means that Serena Williams was around eight weeks pregnant when <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2017\/01\/28\/serena-williams-defeats-sister-venus-sets-open-era-record-23rd-grand-slam\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she won the <strong>Australian Open<\/strong> in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The younger Williams sister did not drop a set during the tournament where she defeated sister <strong>Venus<\/strong> in the final to win her 23rd Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/632915624\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 67.340067% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/632915624?et=ky5XQnduS41uiQwLmFdHuw&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=sek4_54djJF-H5hadR6udH2YJH-pySDT9QUbv9QYoiU=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Williams would also have been around four weeks pregnant when she <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2016\/12\/29\/serena-williams-announces-engagement-alexis-ohanian\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first announced her engagement to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian<\/a>, 33, in the final days of December last year.<\/p>\n<p>The pregnancy provides\u00a0more of an explanation as to she has not been in action since her triumph in <strong>Melbourne<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Serena Williams <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2017\/03\/08\/wtas-expectations-indian-wells-serena-williams-withdrawals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pulled out of both <strong>Indian Wells<\/strong><\/a> and <strong>Miami<\/strong> with a left knee injury. Despite her lack of activity she will return to world #1 next week as <strong>Angelique Kerber<\/strong> loses ranking points.<\/p>\n<h2>Serena Williams joins Victoria Azarenka in becoming a mum<\/h2>\n<p>The 35-year-old is not the first high-profile tennis player to have taken time out of the game due to pregnancy recently.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Today I had my hardest fight and my very best victory! Our son was born healthy and happy! So thankful and blessed! Thank you ??\u2764 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zsoFRivnvQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/zsoFRivnvQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 victoria azarenka (@vika7) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vika7\/status\/811031196083900416\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 20, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nTwo-time Grand Slam champion <strong>Victoria Azarenka<\/strong> had a baby boy, Leo, in December after announcing her pregnancy last July.<\/p>\n<p>The Belorussian has recently announced that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2017\/04\/12\/victoria-azarenka-return-stanford\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she is likely to return to action in July<\/a> this year &#8211; exactly one year after she announced her pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/632915024\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 62.457912% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/632915024?et=APPn041uRm51BvNA_z2n1g&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=mhuoczYgfDoZi1CVSYPP9YHZqVeGjArVV69Sj4-Htgw=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serena Williams has\u00a0finally confirmed she is pregnant after much speculation. The 23-time Grand Slam champion\u00a0hinted at the pregnancy after posting a photograph on Snapchat accompanied by the caption &#8220;20 weeks&#8221;. Within half an hour the picture was deleted, but not before thousands of people took to social media to congratulate Williams and fiance Alexis Ohanian. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1355,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,9],"tags":[456,24,205,25,393],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-featured","category-news","tag-alexis-ohanian","tag-angelique-kerber","tag-australian-open","tag-serena-williams","tag-victoria-azarenka"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}