The Duchess of Cambridge may only recently have become the royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, but the avid tennis fan has been attending Wimbledon for many years, and has rubbed shoulders with an array of tennis stars and champions over that time.
Now, a former world number one has come forward to reveal what it was really like to come face-to-face with one of the world’s most watched women.
Speaking to Hello! Magazine, retired American tennis star Andre Agassi revealed that kind-natured Kate is just as sweet as she seems.
“She’s a sweetheart of a lady,” Agassi told the magazine.
“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!”
The Duchess of Cambridge, no stranger to taking a seat in the royal box at Wimbledon these days, met Agassi and his wife, Steffi Graf, back in 2012 when they were all seated in Centre Court’s best seats.
Catherine Duchess of Cambridge chats to Steffi Graf in the royal box at Wimbledon 2012
Catherine was no doubt a little star-struck to meet Agassi and Graff, after admitting that the tennis stars had made quite an impression on her when she was younger.
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“I was really taken by [Andre] Agassi and [Pete] Sampras, [Goran] Ivanisevic and Steffi Graff. That for me was my first memories,” Catherine revealed when talking about her love of tennis in the BBC One documentary Sue Barker: Our Wimbledon.
“It inspires young people including myself. Every time Wimbledon is on I am thinking, ‘Yes, I could do the same’ and get out the racket. Sadly, not the same results,” she joked. The Duchess also candidly revealed that her mother, Carole, thinks tennis champion Roger Federer is “a real heat-throb”.
