LONDON (AP) — The Princess of Wales attended the men's Wimbledon final at the All England Club on Sunday and handed out the winner's trophy to Carlos Alcaraz after the match in only her second public appearance since announcing she was diagnosed with cancer.
Kate, wife of heir to the throne Prince William, was greeted by a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd as she took her seat in the Royal Box before the start of the championship match between Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
After Alcaraz clinched a victory in straight sets, Kate walked onto the court to present the trophies to both players, part of her duties as patron of the All England Club. She first shook hands with some of the ball kids who worked at the tournament, then exchanged words with both players and applauded Alcaraz after handing him the golden Wimbledon trophy for the second straight year.
Kate and her 9-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte, got to the site of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament in southwest London in a motorcade about a half-hour before the final was scheduled to begin. They went to a terrace at the club that is connected to the main stadium by a pedestrian walkway and greeted several people, including 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu and other young British tennis players.
Kate was wearing a purple dress — one of Wimbledon's official colors.
She was joined in the front row of the Royal Box by her sister Pippa Matthews. Two rows behind them were actors Tom Cruise and Benedict Cumberbatch, while a number of former Wimbledon champions were also on hand — including Rod Laver, Andre Agassi and Stefan Edberg.
Since 2016, the princess has been the patron of the All England Club, which hosts Wimbledon each year. Her ceremonial duties include handing out the winner’s trophies after the singles finals, although she was not on hand Saturday when Barbora Krejcikova defeated Jasmine Paolini for the women's title.
Kate revealed in March that she has cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. Her lone public appearance since then was attending last month’s birthday parade for King Charles III. Before that event, she released a statement saying she was “making good progress” but still had “good days and bad days.”
Prince William has been a regular at Wimbledon finals but was not there Sunday. Instead, he planned to go watch England face Spain in the final of the men’s soccer European Championship in Germany. He is the president of the English Football Association.
Queen Camilla, wife of King Charles III, visited Wimbledon on Wednesday.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Howard Fendrich And Mattias Karen, The Associated Press