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Twenty-three-time grand slam champion Serena Williams has revealed she is 20 weeks pregnant.

The American took to Snapchat to reveal her news to the world, captioning a photograph of her in a swimsuit with "20 weeks", although she swiftly deleted the post.

The 35-year-old is engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and will return to the world No.1 spot on Monday.

She won the Australian Open in January and is widely considered to be the greatest women to play the game.

Her representative later confirmed Williams was expected to give birth this fall.

Williams has not appeared on court since beating her sister Venus in the Melbourne final and has pulled out of several tournaments since winning the year's first major.

She had been citing a knee injury but was due to return at the Madrid Open next month.

But this announcement will cast doubt over whether she will ever return to the sport.

(Image: @JarettSays/Twitter) (Image: Splash News)

Former world No.1 Victoria Azarekna announced she was pregnant last summer and gave birth to a baby boy shorty before Christmas.

The Belarussian, 27, has not set a date for her comeback but has said she intends to return.

Ohanian proposed to Williams last December in the same Rome restaurant where they first met.

She said earlier this year that they had yet to make wedding plans.

"I really haven't thought about it too much," she admitted. "I just keep saying, 'February, I'll start looking at the bigger picture of my life.' But right now, I'm just so focused.

"He's [her fiance] incredibly... a really nice person. I think he definitely treats everyone the same, which is really cool to see. Really, really nice to see."

(Image: Splash News)

Williams has made no secret of her desire to have a family.

Speaking to Glamour magazine last summer, she said: "I definitely want to have kids one day. That's always something I've wanted as long as I could remember. And the older I get, the more I'm like, 'I'm too young!'.

"Hopefully I'll be able to mature one of these days, get serious, and at least have them pretty fast."

Williams won her first grand slam in 1999 when she lifted the US Open trophy, and went on to add the French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon within four years.