The UK’s Catherine, the Princess of Wales, handed out the trophy to Iga Swiatek after the women’s Wimbledon final on Saturday, after not attending last year’s match while she was recovering from cancer.
Swiatek beat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 for her first Wimbledon title.
Catherine, 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 was not there when Barbora Krejcikova defeated Jasmine Paolini for the women’s title last year.
Photo: AP
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.
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.
Photo: AP
Last year, Kate handed 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 announcing in fall last year that she had completed chemotherapy, and took part in welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron during his state visit to the UK last week.
COURTNEY COX
Photo: AFP
Call this episode of Iga Swiatek’s marvelous tennis career “The One Where Iga Swiatek Got A Hug from Courteney Cox After Winning Wimbledon.”
Swiatek is a huge fan of the TV sitcom Friends, and actress Courteney Cox — who played Monica Geller on the show — was at Centre Court on Saturday.
When the match ended, Swiatek went into the stands for celebratory embraces, including one from Cox.
Before the start of last year’s French Open, Swiatek hit some tennis balls for fun with the actress.
After Swiatek won that tournament for the fourth time, she wore custom-made white sneakers stenciled with the words, “The One Where She Wins Her Fifth Grand Slam” in all capital letters, a nod to the way the names of Friends episodes were titled.
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