Annika Sorenstam, the No. 1 player in women's golf and one of the most famous female athletes in the world, has filed for divorce from her husband of eight years, Golfweek magazine reported on Tuesday.
The divorce petition was filed on Feb. 4 in Circuit Court of Orange County, not far from where Sorenstam and David Esch live in the gated community of Lake Nona. The suit has been sealed, and no other details were available.
"They're made an amicable decision to terminate the relationship," Orlando-based attorney Mayanne Downs told the magazine. "They're going to try to keep it personal and private. That's all I'm at liberty to say."
Sorenstam's agent, Mark Steinberg, was traveling in Asia and not immediately available for comment.
Sorenstam had hinted at early retirement in recent years, saying she might want to start a family.
But rumors that the marriage was rocky began last year when Esch, highly visible through his Swedish wife's career, stopped traveling as frequently. Esch began to work in real estate near their summer home in Incline, Nevada.
He was last seen at the Samsung World Championship in Palm Desert, California in October, when Sorenstam shot 67 in the final round to win.
But he was not at the season-ending ADT Championship, when Sorenstam was presented with her seventh LPGA player of the year award. Sorenstam thanked her husband in the acceptance speech, then went on to win her eighth LPGA Tour event of 2004.
Sorenstam also was at Kapalua to play in the pro-am at the US PGA Tour's season-opening Mercedes Championships last month. She spent three days on Maui with her sister, Charlotta.
Sorenstam, 34, and Esch, 35, met in 1994 at Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix, where Esch worked for Ping.
They got engaged at the end of 1995, after Sorenstam won the US Women's Open. They married on Jan. 4, 1997.
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
RSS