Catherine, Princess of Wales and Wimbledon champion Roger Federer talk before playing tennis on No 3 Court at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Photo / Getty Images
Catherine, Princess of Wales and Wimbledon champion Roger Federer talk before playing tennis on No 3 Court at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Photo / Getty Images
The Princess of Wales recently saw a title change and now it seems she’s had yet another. Following a tennis match with Roger Federer, Kate has been dubbed the “Princess of Sport” by royal fans.
Appearing in a new video for Wimbledon’s YouTube channel, the 41-year-old royal was seen playing a friendly game of tennis with Federer, who has won the Wimbledon men’s championship title eight times.
And it seems the princess may have been holding back on a secret talent, as she beat Federer with a cracking shot during the match. “I think it was on the line. Amazing,” Federer, also 41, congratulated his royal opponent.
Elsewhere in the match, Kate took a moment to ask the retired tennis star for some pointers on the court: “Any tips on my serve at the same time would be very helpful,” she joked.
The Princess of Wales and Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer join a ball boy and girl practice in the run up to The Championships 2023. Photo / Getty Images
But Federer appeared to think she didn’t need any and instead gave her an elite compliment: “The serve looks good.”
The two came together to highlight the world of ball boys and girls for the upcoming tournament and received their own training from Mollie – an official Wimbledon ball girl.
In one moment of the video, the princess was seen learning some key rules of being a ball girl and caught a ball as it flew off the court, however she was quickly scolded by Federer who said: “Are you allowed to do that? At Australia, they catch it, but in Wimbledon, they don’t!”
Mollie soon set the princess on the right track before giving Federer some pointers as well.
The four-minute, 15-second long video ends with the pair visiting an indoor training centre where Kate gushed over the “incredible” ball boys and girls that have been chosen for this year’s tournament.
Since being uploaded yesterday, the video has already amazed more than 300,000 views and hundreds of comments, many from royal fans who were impressed by Kate’s tennis skills.
One person said: “She’s a natural athlete and an overall well-rounded individual. She’s a credit to the UK and monarchy”, while another said: “Catherine, The Princess of Sport”. Meanwhile, other fans said they would love to see the pair go head to head in a charity match.
It comes after the princess got candid about her early days as a royal and the struggles she faced at the time during a visit to a youth charity last month.
Speaking to a group of girls from a school in Bristol, she opened up about her experience joining the monarchy, revealing to the girls that the thought of becoming a royal never crossed her mind until she fell in love with Prince William, according to one of the people present.
Dame Kelly Holmes, who was also present at the event, told the Daily Mail: “They were just asking her about being a royal. Was it something that she wanted to do? And she said she had to learn. It’s a struggle to know that you can be accepted and fit in and you are still learning every day.
“Doing public speaking isn’t a natural thing for lots of people is it? And she was saying she is still working that out but has to project. So you know again, she humanised everything. Not everyone is perfect.”
