The Princess of Wales is a well-known tennis fan and attends the All England Club almost every year during Wimbledon – but one year she couldn’t attend and missed a moment of tennis history
Wimbledon has always shared a special link with the Royal Family – and one member of the Firm who hardly ever misses the Championships is the Princess of Wales.
Kate is not only a huge tennis fan but a patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club – and appears to have taken over the role of handing the singles champions their trophies, following on from the Duke and the late Duchess of Kent.
In recent years, she’s made several visits during the tournament fortnight, and last week even surprised those waiting in the famous Wimbledon queue before handing out tickets and taking payment.
But despite appearing to be an ever present at the tournament, there was one years when she as advised not to attend the tournament – despite her pleas to be allowed to go – and missed a huge historic win.
It came 13 years ago in 2013 when Sir Andy Murray made it to the men’s singles final and was gunning to become the first British man to win the Grand Slam since Fred Perry in 1936.
Kate, it seems, was eager to be at Wimbledon to cheer him on but was heavily pregnant with Prince George at the time, so she was advised to watch the match from home.
She told Sue Barker on the BBC documentary Our Wimbledon: “I was very heavily pregnant with George so I wasn’t able to turn up.” Sue replied: “But you had a great excuse!”
“I know but even still,” Kate said. “I was sort of ‘Maybe I could go’ but the doctors were like ‘no.’ I wrote to [Andy Murray] afterwards saying sorry for not being there, but huge congratulations.”
However, luckily three years later in 2016, when Murray made the final again, Kate was able to be there to see him lift his second Wimbledon title.
She attended the final with husband Prince William and couldn’t contain her emotions when he served up a win. Meeting Murray after his match, Kate said: “Many congratulations; it was a great game.” While William said: “So pleased for you, well done”, and Kate added: “You can relax with your family now.”
On her recent visit to Wimbledon last week, Kate caught up with Sir Andy once again as well as former British ladies number one Anne Keothavong.
The former tennis players sat with Kate in court one to watch Brit Katie Swan face America’s Madison Keys, and Anne said she, Sir Andy and the princess spent time discussing their children. Swan ultimately lost the match.
She said: “She didn’t stop chatting, it was brilliant. Andy was there as well and we all have kids (who are of a) similar age, so a lot of the chat revolved around that, and tennis, and encouraging young kids to play and the challenges that we face as parents.”
She added: “It was really fun. She was really interested in the tennis and really easy to talk to.” Asked how much detail the princess, a tennis player herself, went into when discussing the tennis, Keothavong said: “I think she had a huge amount of appreciation for the power that the players were able to produce, and the athleticism of both Katie and Madison.
“If anything, it was more just appreciation for the players and what they were able to do out there.”