Maria Sharapova celebrated her 35th birthday with a special announcement. The five-time Grand Slam winner is pregnant with her first child.
“Precious beginnings!!! Eating birthday cake for two has always been my specialty,” she wrote in the post, along with a photo of her on the beach.
Sharapova confirmed her engagement to British businessman Alexander Gilkes, 42, in December 2020. They have been together since 2018.
Sharapova, a former world No. 1, retired from tennis in February 2020 at the age of 32. The Russian native burst onto the scene aged 17 in 2004 when she defeated No. 1 Serena Williams in the Wimbledon singles final. Her Grand Slam achievements include the 2006 US Open, the 2008 Australian Open and two French Open titles in 2012 and 2014. She is one of only 10 women to have won all four Grand Slams at least once.
In 10 Grand Slam games, she faced Williams four times, winning only the first. Sharapova also won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where she faced Williams in the final. And she has won 36 World Tennis Association (WTA) titles in her career.
But that career took a different turn in 2016 when she was banned for two years for testing positive for Meldonium, a performance enhancer. It was later shortened to 15 months as she claimed she had been taking the heart drug for a decade for a magnesium deficiency.
The tennis superstar’s deals over the years have included Evian, TAG Heuer, Nike and Therabody, for which Sharapova serves as a strategic advisor. The company wrote a congratulatory message on its Instagram announcement on Wednesday. She was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years, earning peak earnings of $30 million in 2015, according to Forbes. Her career prize money is at least $39 million.
Maria Sharapova and Alexander Gilkes attend the Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 6, 2019. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic)