Former Tennis Star Maria Sharapova Announces She’s Pregnant With First Child

The five-time grand slam champion retired in 2020.

On Maria Sharapova’s 35th birthday on Tuesday, she announced via Instagram that she is pregnant with her first child.

“Precious beginnings!!!” Her caption read. “Eating birthday cake for two has always been my specialty.” 

Sharapova recently married British businessman Alexander Gilkes, with whom she is having her child.

The five-time grand slam champion retired from tennis in 2020. She is one of only 10 women to complete the career Grand Slam, winning five total Grand Slam tournaments across 10 years.

Sharapova was No. 87 on Forbes’s 100 America’s Self-Made Women list in 2020. Her net worth in 2020 was $200 million.

The former tennis star was also Forbes’s highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 years in a row. 

Since retiring in 2020, she’s continued to work on her brand Sugarpova, along with working on her charity the Maria Sharapova Foundation. 

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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.