Retired tennis star and five-time Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova set to become a mother.
The Russian tennis star revealed in an Instagram post on Tuesday which incidentally marked her 35th birthday that she and fiancé Alexander Gilkes are expecting their first baby together.
“Precious beginnings!!! 🤍👼🏻 Eating birthday cake for two has always been my specialty ☺️🐣🎂,” she captioned a picture of herself on the beach cradling her growing baby bump.
Fans and friends alike rushed to the comment section to congratulate Sharapova and Gilkes, 42, on the joyous news, with Erin Andrews simply writing, “Congrats!” while Vinazine app cofounder Olivia June chimed in with, “@gilkesa YOU TWO ARE GOING TO HAVE THE MOST SPECTACULAR BABY! Congrats on the best year ever ahead!! 😍❤️🎂 👼🏻.”
“OMG! Happy Birthday Maria and congrats on this special moment! We can’t wait to meet your bundle of joy! 🤗,” the account for Therabody, the company in which Sharapova serves as Strategic Advisor, added.
In December 2020, the 2012 Olympic Games finalist confirmed her engagement to Gilkes, a British businessman and co-founder of online auction house Paddle8. The couple first went public with their relationship in 2018.
“I said yes from the first day we met❤️This was our little secret, wasn’t it 💍🥂@gilkesa,” Sharapova wrote in a sweet post on Instagram at the time.
Gilkes also shared the happy news on his personal Instagram page, writing, “Thank you for making me a very very happy boy. I look forward to a lifetime of loving you, and learning from you @mariasharapova #💍.”
Sharapova had retired from the sport she spent nearly 20 years dominating prior to Gilkes popping the question, revealing her decision to step away from the court in a guest column written for Vanity Fair in February.
“In giving my life to tennis, tennis gave me a life,” Sharapova wrote.
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“I’ll miss it every day,” she continued. “I’ll miss the training and my daily routine: Waking up at dawn, lacing my left shoe before my right, and closing the court’s gate before I hit my first ball of the day. I’ll miss my team, my coaches. I’ll miss the moments sitting with my father on the practice court bench.”