NEW DELHI: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza announced on Monday she is pregnant, describing herself as “ecstatic”, but giving no indication whether she would retire from the sport.

Sania Mirza and her husband, cricketer Shoaib Malik, posted a picture on their Twitter accounts of a baby vest and a feeding bottle between two T-shirts bearing their names.

It was accompanied by hashtag #BabyMirzaMalik.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan tweeted back his “congratulations”.

The baby is due in October, the tennis star’s father and coach Imran Mirza said.

“We are soon to become parents,” Sania Mirza said in a statement released by a family friend.

“Having thought about it for a while, we both felt right now is the correct time to start a family. When we found out, we were ecstatic and couldn’t wait to give out this news to our fans and well-wishers.

“We are very excited to enter this new phase of our lives and look forward to our journey as parents,” she added.

The three-time Grand Slam doubles winner had said earlier this month that any child she had would bear the Mirza-Malik surname and that Shoaib wanted a daughter.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2018