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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Sam Hall

Princess of Wales to attend Wimbledon women’s singles final

The Princess of Wales will attend the women’s singles final at Wimbledon.

Kensington Palace said Kate would attend the match between Amanda Anisimova and Iga Swiatek on Saturday.

Kate, who is patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, will present the trophy on Centre Court to the winner of the final on day 13 of the championships.

She will be accompanied on court by All England Club chairwoman Deborah Jevans, All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton and LTA president Sandi Procter.

Last year the princess presented the Wimbledon men’s final trophy to Carlos Alcaraz, in her second public engagement since she announced her cancer diagnosis.

The Princess of Wales’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, were seen in the Royal Box on Monday, with the Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Gloucester also in attendance.

The Queen told tennis star Novak Djokovic that she was keeping her “fingers crossed” as she visited Wimbledon on Wednesday.

The Princess Royal’s son Peter Phillips attended the championships on Wednesday, with Hugh Grant and former prime minister Sir John Major also in the Royal Box.

Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah, former footballer Ian Wright and Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins were among the notable names to attend a hot day at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Temperatures are forecast to peak at around 30C and fall short of a record for a women’s singles final day, with 31.2C having been recorded on the day of the 1976 final between Chris Evert and Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst said: “There will be blue skies at Wimbledon throughout the day so it will feel hot, with very high UV levels and a light wind.

“There might be a little bit more cloud around tomorrow, making it a degree lower.”

Carlos Alcaraz (left) is presented with the trophy by the Princess of Wales after victory in 2024 (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Archive)

The men’s singles semi-final on Friday between Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz was stopped twice in less than five minutes because of crowd emergencies, amid temperatures of 32C on Centre Court.

Three fans also needed attention on Centre Court on Thursday in similarly hot conditions.

The men’s singles final on Sunday, with highs of 29C predicted, is unlikely to break the record of the warmest closing day on record of 34.1C recorded on July 3 1976.

The extreme heat during the 1976 tournament prompted organisers to allow umpires to remove their jackets.

Wimbledon has said the heat rule will apply for all singles events for players, which allows for a 10-minute break when the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) is at or above 30.1C.

The rule will apply after the second set for all best-of-three-set matches, and after the third for all best-of-five-set matches.

Players may leave the court during the break, but they may not receive coaching or medical treatment.

Sophie Kneen, 12, will perform the coin toss at the women’s singles final on Centre Court, representing the AFC Wimbledon Foundation.

Sophie, who is part of the foundation’s women and girls inclusion project, told the PA news agency: “I’m really excited, it’s always been a dream of mine to go out on Centre Court.”

Asked about the foundation, Sophie said: “I’ve been playing football with them and at the development centre for a couple of years now and it’s really helped my confidence.”

Kate Wells, women and girls’ officer at AFC Wimbledon Foundation, said: “Sophie is such a great, positive energy to have at our sessions, she’s really respectful to her coaches and to her peers, and because of that we felt she really deserved to take part in the coin toss ceremony this year.”

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