World No 2 Serena Williams on Thursday confirmed speculation that she was pregnant and will miss the rest of the 2017 season, reported Reuters. The confirmation arrived a day after she had posted a picture of herself on social media platform Snapchat before deleting it a few minutes later.

“I’m happy to confirm Serena is expecting a baby this fall,” Los Angeles-based publicist Kelly Bush Novak said. Reuters also reported that Bush Novak had told the publication that Williams intended to sit out the remainder of the 2017 season.

The picture which the 35-year-old uploaded on Wednesday had a caption reading “20 weeks”. The picture, included a caption reading “20 weeks.” Incidentally, the 35-year-old got engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in December last year.

Photo: @serenawilliams/Snapchat

Williams recently won her 23rd Grand Slam title with a win over her sister Venus at the Australian Open final in January. She has since pulled out of two major WTA events at Indian Wells and Miami, citing a knee injury.