Anett Kontaveit has announced that she is expecting her first child, less than a year after officially retiring from professional tennis.
Kontaveit is the most decorated tennis player to hail from Estonia. The 28-year-old attained a career-high ranking of World no. 2 on the WTA Tour in June 2022 thanks to her exceptional run of form in the second half of 2021 in which she swept four titles in three months.
She is also a former Grand Salm quarterfinalist (2020 Australian Open) and a runner-up at the WTA Finals. Kontaveit won six WTA titles in her career and almost 400 matches and earned over $8 million in career prize money.
However, a chronic back injury, which was diagnosed as lumbar disc degeneration in late 2022, forced Kontaveit to undergo constant treatment and consultations. The condition limited her movements and subjected her to unimaginable pain.
Eventually, she threw in the towel and was forced into early retirement at 27. She formally announced her decision in June 2023 and played her last professional tournament at Wimbledon last season, losing to Marie Bouzkova in the second round in a singles competition.
Kontaveit was given a fitting sendoff in front of her home fans in Tallinn, Estonia, in a farewell match against Tunisia's Ons Jabeur at the end of last year. She has no regrets about how her career ended so abruptly at a very young age, knowing that she gave it her all.
The Estonian star has been busy in her post-tennis life, working out at the gym and learning. She recently announced that she is co-authoring her own book detailing her tennis journey, which will be released in November.
In a new development, Kontaveit informed her fans on Instagram that she and boyfriend Brent Lepistu are expecting a child and flaunted a joint photo in which the retired WTA player showed off her baby bump.
"New family member on the way."
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