Serena still hitting balls, baby bump and all

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala in New York City – REUTERS

Reuters: At six months pregnant, Serena Williams is refusing to let her baby bump get in the way of forehands or backhands – she is still working out and playing tennis to retain her touch, her long-time coach told Reuters on Saturday.

Although the 23-times grand slam champion has not played competitively since winning the Australian Open in January, she has been soaking up the Roland Garros atmosphere in Paris this week, watching sister Venus play and catching up with friends.

“She’s working out and she even played tennis the other day,” her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou said in an interview at the tennis stadium on Saturday.

“She said to me she didn’t want to lose her touch.

“Of course she went slow, but she wanted to hit the ball.”

The American former world number one, who announced her engagement to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in December, posted a picture on Snapchat on April 20 with the words “20 weeks”. That means Williams would currently be 26 weeks pregnant.

Although the three-times French Open winner deleted the 20-week photo afterwards, her pregnancy was confirmed later that day by her publicist, Kelly Bush Novak.

Speaking at a TED conference a week later, Williams said she had been keeping a weekly diary of her pregnancy and had accidentally posted the shot online.

Although Williams turns 36 in September, and achieved a long-time goal when she won an Open era-record 23rd grand slam title in Australia, she has every intention of coming back, according to Mouratoglou.

“When she called me to tell me she was pregnant, in the same sentence, she said: ‘I’m pregnant but I will be back, will you wait for me?’” the Frenchman said. “She is really planning on coming back, and she said to me ‘I am not done, I cannot finish like this.’”

Since Mouratoglou started coaching Williams at Wimbledon in 2012, the pair have won 10 grand slam singles championships together and rewritten the tennis history books. The only big record left to break is that of Australia’s Margaret Court, who won 24 grand slam singles titles between 1960 and 1973.

Although Kim Clijsters, Evonne Goolagong and Court all won grand slam singles titles after having a child, none of them did so after the age of 31. Victoria Azarenka, a two-time grand slam winner and former world No. 1, had a baby boy last year when she was 27 and will return to competition next month during the grass-court season.

But for Serena, age is just a number.

“Since she still feels she can win grand slams, she doesn’t want to stop,” Mouratoglou said. “The day she will think, I am too old, or for any reason, I don’t have the motivation, I cannot win any more grand slams, of course she will stop straight away.”

It’s a girl! Not necessarily, says Serena

AFP: Serena Williams said Thursday that big sister Venus did not necessarily reveal that she is expecting a baby girl.

Venus, playing at the French Open in Paris, told a TV interviewer: “She’s going to call me her favourite aunt.”

“We all like ‘baby V, baby Lyn, baby Isha’. We all want the baby to be named after us,” the 36-year-old told Eurosport, referring to the names of Serena’s sisters.

The interview led many to believe that the baby, due in September, will be a girl.

However, Serena took to Twitter on Thursday in an attempt to cool all those cooing on social media for a baby girl.

“I think the surprise of knowing what you are going to have on that very special day you give birth is probably the best surprise you can ever have,” wrote the 23-time major winner.

“So just to clarify what Venus said, I am always joking with my sisters to see what favours I can get them to do for me next. 

“If I want something from one of my sisters, I say baby Venus, baby Lyn, or baby Isha needs it.

“I did not grow up with any brothers, only sisters and we all say ‘she’ rather than ‘he’.”

Serena, who revealed she was pregnant in April, has always refused to discuss the sex of the baby she is expecting with fiance Alex Ohanian, the founder of Reddit.

She was at Roland Garros on Wednesday watching her older sister defeat Kurumi Nara in the second round on the showpiece Philippe Chatrier court.

Earlier this week in Paris, Venus had talked about her anticipation of becoming an aunt.

“I’m definitely looking forward to it. I hope that I can live up to this job,” she said.

“I think you just have to be ready, aware, and alert. Then have a lot of diaper duty.”

Serena, 35, learned she was pregnant just two days before the Australian Open.

She intends to resume her career in 2018.