LONDON (AP) 鈥 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.
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鈥檚 and women鈥檚 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.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 sure if she was going to come out today, if she was going to be there,鈥 Anisimova said. 鈥淪o 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.鈥
After leaving the court following the ceremony, the princess and Swiatek had a conversation in a room inside the tournament鈥檚 main stadium before the Polish player walked out onto a balcony to show the trophy to the crowd waiting outside.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember (what she said) really, because I was too overwhelmed,鈥 Swiatek said about that private conversaion. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to do any faux pas. I wanted to behave well.鈥
Last year, Kate did hand the trophy to in the men's final, when she made only her second public appearance since .
She has been gradually returning to public duties since since announcing last fall that she had , and took part in welcoming French President during his state visit to Britain this week.
Alcaraz plays Jannik Sinner on Sunday. ___
AP tennis:
