LONDON (AP) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, handed out the trophy to Iga Swiatek and some consoling words to Amanda Anisimova after the women's Wimbledon final on Saturday.
Swiatek beat Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 for her first Wimbledon title.
Kate, the wife of Prince William, is the patron of the All England Club and has regularly attended the men’s and women’s finals. However, she did not attend last year's women's final while she was recovering from cancer.
On Saturday, she was greeted by a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd as she entered the Royal Box just before the final between the eighth-seeded Swiatek and No. 13 Anisimova started.
After the match, she took part in the trophy presentation on court, first handing the runner-up trophy to Anisimova and then the Venus Rosewater Dish to Swiatek.
She also offered up some words of encouragement to Anisimova, who was in tears after the one-sided defeat.
“I wasn’t sure if she was going to come out today, if she was going to be there,” Anisimova said. “So it was just really nice to see her. She definitely had a few things to say that were making me emotional again. But yeah, she was really kind. She told me to keep my head high.”
After leaving the court following the ceremony, the princess and Swiatek had a conversation in a room inside the tournament’s main stadium before the Polish player walked out onto a balcony to show the trophy to the crowd waiting outside.
“I don’t remember (what she said) really, because I was too overwhelmed,” Swiatek said about that private conversaion. “I didn’t want to do any faux pas. I wanted to behave well.”
Last year, Kate did hand the trophy to Carlos Alcaraz after his victory over Novak Djokovic in the men's final, when she made only her second public appearance since announcing she was diagnosed with cancer.
She has been gradually returning to public duties since since announcing last fall that she had completed chemotherapy, and took part in welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron during his state visit to Britain this week.
Alcaraz plays Jannik Sinner in the men's final on Sunday. ___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Mattias Karén, The Associated Press
