After Alexander Zverev (25), Angelique Kerber (34) will also be absent from the US Open, which starts next Monday in New York. The reason: the three-time Grand Slam winner is pregnant according to information from BILD. In the afternoon she officially wants to cancel the third Grand Slam tournament of the year.

The former world number one and her boyfriend Franco Bianco are looking forward to their first child. It should be ready in the spring of next year. At the Australian Open in Melbourne, the fitness entrepreneur from near Frankfurt was already in the stands.

Kerber, currently number 52 in the world rankings, still wanted to play in New York because she is very emotionally connected to the tournament. When she wanted to end her career in 2011 after a series of defeats, she made her breakthrough with the semifinals in Flushing Meadows. In 2016 she won the title there, becoming number one in the world.

But in the end she canceled, for the baby and because she couldn’t get in shape after being behind in training. The girl from Kiel had not played since Wimbledon, so she would have traveled without a preparatory tournament. Her cancellation ends a series of 52 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments that she played.

However, pregnancy does not mean the end of a career. From her environment it is said that the 2024 Olympics in Paris is her big dream, only then would she stop. Then probably after the US Open in two years.