Retired tennis star Maria Sharapova on Friday announced that she and her fiance Alexander Gilkes welcomed their first child together on July 1. The couple has named their son Theodore.
The 35-year-old shared a photo of herself and her 42-year-old fiance holding their baby boy.
“The most beautiful, challenging, and rewarding gift our little family could ask for,” she captioned the post.
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The five-time Grand Slam champ and the British businessman made their relationship official in 2018. They announced their engagement two years later.
On the occasion of her birthday in April this year, Sharapova announced that she was pregnant.
“Precious beginnings!!! Eating birthday cake for two has always been my specialty,” she wrote on Instagram, along with a photo of herself on the beach cradling her baby bump.
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Sharapova retired from professional tennis after the 2020 Australian Open.
In a guest column for Vanity Fair, she wrote, “In giving my life to tennis, tennis gave me a life. I’ll miss it every day.”
“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,” she continued.
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“Looking back now, I realize that tennis has been my mountain. My path has been filled with valleys and detours, but the views from its peak were incredible. After 28 years and five Grand Slam titles, though, I’m ready to scale another mountain—to compete on a different type of terrain,” she wrote.
