Tennis legend Andre Agassi opened up in a recent interview about meeting the Duchess of Cambridge, a fixture at Wimbledon, a few years ago.
Attending the 2012 semi-finals with his wife and fellow tennis legend Steffi Graf, Agassi told Hello! that he’d been seated next to Kate and William in the royal box when they had a brief chat.
“I really thought she was incredibly pleasant,” Agassi said. “She was lovely.
“We didn’t chat a whole lot, but she was lovely.”
Agassi wouldn’t divulge what they’d been chatting about, but it isn’t the first time he’s sung Kate’s praises. Last year in an interview to coincide with Wimbledon, he described Kate as a real sweetheart.
“She’s a sweetheart of a lady,” Agassi said. “I don’t know her well, and quite honestly I don’t get the whole royalty thing – in the sense that they’re celebrities on steroids or something. I can empathise with some of that, but it’s fascinating to watch from the outside. You have to be on your game all the time!”
And it wasn’t only Kate that Agassi chatted about. He told Hello! that Meghan, the new Duchess of Sussex, had his best wishes, saying, “Rock on! I wish them nothing but the best.”
Meghan is close friends with Serena Williams, one of the world’s greatest female tennis players. It has not been announced whether she will attend any of her upcoming matches in the second week.
Kate regularly attends Wimbledon – only missing 2013 since becoming a member of the Royal Family due to her imminent due date for Prince George – and took over as patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club from Queen Elizabeth in 2016.
She usually attends at least two matches per year and will likely take up handing out the trophies from the Duke of Kent, who is President of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, at a point in the near future. It remains to be seen whether she will attend any matches this year, as she’s on maternity leave, but she did attend while on maternity leave in 2015.
Last year Kate sat down for an interview with the BBC about her love of tennis, and spoke of her admiration for Agassi and Pete Sampras, among other players, and how she always watched Wimbledon growing up.
“It’s such a quintessential part of the English summer, and I think it really inspires youngsters – myself, it inspired me, when I was younger – to get involved in the game.
“It hasn’t changed either, I think that’s what’s so wonderful…everyone’s still there in their whites, Wimbledon still looks as amazing as it did as I remember it as a youngster…”
