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Lachlan — in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday morning.
Black’s mother, Velia, broke this good news yesterday, saying her daughter and the baby were all doing well.
“Cara has just given birth to a healthy baby boy this morning (yesterday) in Melbourne and they have named him Lachlan . . . and we are all excited about it.
“In fact, Cara has just informed me that she wants to return to Zimbabwe in three weeks time to settle down here with her husband, who is a well-known fitness trainer.
“They (Cara and Brett Stephens) said they just want to give their new baby boy at least three weeks in Australia before they fly out to Zimbabwe.
“This means that all my ‘chickens’ will be back in Africa and I’m so excited about it,” said Velia, whose two other children, Zimbabwean tennis legends Byron and Wayne, are now based in South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively.
Byron is based at White River just next to Kruger National Park in Nelspruit, South Africa, while Wayne is now a full-time tennis coach here in Zimbabwe.
Their sister Cara (32) hung up her rackets in June last year after spending 13 successful years on the road as a professional tennis player.
Cara, a four-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, made US$6 515 415 in career prize money and won all four Grand Slam mixed doubles — at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Brett Stephens was Cara’s fitness trainer before the two got married in December 2006 on Spurwing Island at Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.
He also worked with Byron and Wayne as their fitness trainer during their playing days on the professional tennis circuit and when they represented Zimbabwe in the Davis Cup competition.
After tying the knot, Cara spent almost five years playing on the professional circuit before she featured in her last tournament at Wimbledon in June last year.
And this would bring to an end the 32-year-old’s illustrious career that started in January 1998 when she turned professional.
Cara, one of the foremost doubles players of the early 21st century, went on to bag 63 doubles and seven singles titles.
In fact, Cara won five Grand Slam women’s doubles titles in her career: Wimbledon 2004, 2005 and 2007; Australian Open 2007; and US Open 2008.
She reached the 2000 US Open women’s doubles final with Elena Likhovtseva.
She also won three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, two of them partnering her brother Wayne: the 2002 French Open and the 2004 Wimbledon Championships (they reached the final of the 2004 French Open and the semi-finals of the 2003 French Open and 2003 US Open); and most recently the 2008 US Open with Leander Paes.
Cara is also one of the only two female athletes who have represented Zimbabwe at the Olympic Games three times in a row in 2000 (Sydney, Australia), 2004 (Athens, Greece) and 2008 in Beijing, China.
The other one is swimming icon Kirsy Coventry. Cara has also contributed immensely in putting Zimbabwe on the world map. She has won the Zimbabwe Sportsperson of the Year award three times in 2006, 2007 and 2010.