Christmas came with an extra special announcement by former World No.1 Ashleigh Barty this year: The three-time Grand Slam champion and husband Garry Kissick are expecting their second child. 

“Merry Christmas from our growing family to yours,” the two wrote on Instagram in a collab post between their accounts Tuesday. The sporting couple are already parents to son Hayden, born in 2023, and the toddler played a starring role in his parents' Dec. 25 announcement.

Standing in front of a Christmas tree, he was seen wearing a shirt that read, “I am going to be a BIG BROTHER.”

Barty and Kissick, a professional golfer in Australia, married in 2022, just a few short months after her Australian Open victory on home soil, and her subsequent second and final retirement from professional tennis.

Barty has since stayed involved in the sport as a National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia, a position she was appointed to back in 2018. She also launched her eponymous charity foundation in early 2024 to support the academic and athletic endeavors of "as many young Australians as possible," and also to support tennis court refurbishment efforts in communities around her home country.

This past season, she and baby Hayden took in tennis as a spectator in Brisbane, before the family traveled to Wimbledon -- where Barty defeated Karolina Pliskova to win the singles title in 2021 -- for her to compete in the legends' invitational and serve as a guest commentator for BBC.