Three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber announced Wednesday she is pregnant and will miss the US Open.
Kerber, 34, last played at Wimbledon, where she fell in the third round.
I really wanted to play the @usopen but eventually I decided that two against one just isn‘t a fair competition 👼🫶🏻🍼❤️ pic.twitter.com/Y6rRYOIUDR
— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) August 24, 2022
But make no mistake: Kerber fully plans to continue her career.
“For the next months, I will take a break from traveling the globe as a tennis player but then again, I believe it’s for the best possible reason,” she wrote. “I will miss all of you.”
Kerber is currently ranked No.52 in the world. In 2016, following her first two Grand Slam titles, at the Australian and US Opens, Kerber ascended to the No.1 ranking for the first time. She held the top spot for 20 consecutive weeks. Combined, she has had three separate stints as the No.1 player for a total of 25 weeks.
Kerber would go on to win Wimbledon two years later, and along with Serena Williams, she is the only active player who has won three different majors.
Earlier this year, Kerber won a clay event at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, her 14th career title.