Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik expecting their first child

What’s the story?

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza took to Twitter and Instagram on Monday to announce that she is expecting her first child with husband and former Pakistani cricket captain, Shoaib Malik. The 31-year-old shared the delightful news in a cute way with the illustration of a baby closet and captioned it, “#BabyMirzaMalik”.

#BabyMirzaMalik 👶🏽❤️ pic.twitter.com/RTYpqok1Vl

— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) April 23, 2018

Malik too shared the same post to announce the arrival of their precious little one on Twitter at the same time as his wife.

The two recently celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary, having tied the knot in April, 2010.

#MirzaMalik ❤️ 👶🏼 pic.twitter.com/8MKmA4CvR3

— Shoaib Malik (@realshoaibmalik) April 23, 2018

In case you didn’t know...

The Indian tennis queen has been out of action since October 2017 as she was recuperating from a right knee injury. She had avoided surgery and was focussing on managing the pain. Previously, the six-time Grand Slam champion had hinted at a return at the 2018 French Open.

The heart of the matter

Mirza had always been a champion of equality. In a recent panel discussion on gender bias, the former singles World No. 27 revealed that she and her husband had decided on giving their future child the surname, ‘Mirza Malik’, instead of just Malik. She also went on to share that the cricketer would love to have a daughter.

What’s next?

Currently, nothing is known as to when Mirza will make her return to the tennis world. The former top-ranked doubles ace has not mentioned anything about hanging up her racquet anytime soon and it is expected that she would be back on the tennis circuit when she feels comfortable.

She would surely be inspired by the comebacks of former World No. 1s Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, who recently became new mothers.