Serena Williams arrives at the 54th NAACP Image Awards on Feb. 25, 2023, at the Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif. Williams has given birth to a baby girl, she posted Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023, on Instagram, almost exactly a year after her last match as a tennis star. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Adira River Ohanian is the second child — and second daughter — for the 41-year-old Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Their first, Olympia, was born in 2017.
Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles during a career that transcended her sport, revealed at the Met Gala in May that she was pregnant.
When she told the world in August 2022 she was preparing to close her playing career, Williams cited a desire to grow her family as one of the main reasons for walking away from tennis.
“Believe me,” Williams wrote last year in an essay for Vogue magazine, “I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”
The 2022 U.S. Open was her last tournament. She reached the third round in New York by beating second-seeded Anett Kontaveit before losing to Ajla Tomljanovic on Sept. 3.
The Arizona Diamondbacks advanced to the World Series for the first time in 22 years by stunning the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. Arizona next plays the Texas Rangers in the Fall Classic.
NHL players will be allowed to use Pride tape this season after all with the reversal of a ban that sparked a backlash around hockey and among LGBTQ+ advocates in sports.
The NBA’s 78th season starts Tuesday, with a ring ceremony in Denver — the traditional celebration of the reigning champions — highlighting the opening-night celebration. The Nuggets beat Miami last June to become the league’s fifth different champion in the last five years, a run of parity the likes of which the league hasn’t seen in more than 40 years.
