We’re headed into the final weekend of Wimbledon, with the women’s singles final being held on Saturday and the men’s singles final on Sunday. One of the women’s finalists is Ons Jabeur, a Tunisian woman and the first Arab player in the top ten and the first Arab/Tunisian woman in a Wimbledon final. The other finalist is Elena Rybakina, a Russian-born Moscow resident who plays under Kazakhstan’s flag. Early in her career, Rybakina sought support from the Russian tennis federation, and they declined, so she changed nationalities to get support and money from Kazakhstan.
Rybakina’s great run to the final is particularly interesting because this year, Wimbledon banned all Russian and Belarussian players from the tournament. The All-England Club made the ban because they didn’t want to be used as a propaganda tool with Putin’s regime after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the Telegraph also claimed, bizarrely, that Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarussian players to “spare” their royal patron, the Duchess of Cambridge. As in, Kate is too precious to Wimbledon to have her sully herself by handing over a trophy to a Russian or Belarussian player. The Telegraph actually equated “handing the trophy to the winner” with “being seen as endorsing the Russian regime.”
So the question a lot of people have is… will Wimbledon’s royal patron even come out for the women’s final, given Elena Rybakina’s run to the final? The British media has been doing the most to talk up “Elena Rybakina plays for Kazakhstan” but it just falls flat because… she’s demonstrably Russian. Still, if the point of all of this was that Wimbledon didn’t want to be part of Putin’s propaganda, the fact that Rybakina gets little to no support from Russia will probably help her image in the UK, and maybe that’s why Kate will show up to the women’s final. Who knows though.
Additionally, one of the men’s singles finalists, Nick Kyrigios, has been ordered to appear in an Australian court in a few weeks on charges of assault and battery of a then-girlfriend. I bet Kate won’t be “spared” from presenting the trophies to the men’s finalists though. Weird that the same argument doesn’t apply – surely by presenting a trophy to a credibly accused abuser would be seen as endorsing domestic abuse?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
-
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268555, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
-
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268563, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
-
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268579, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
-
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268604, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
-
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and William, Duke of Cambridge watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268624, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
-
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and William, Duke of Cambridge watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268631, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton sit on the stands as they attend the Wimbledon Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 5 JULY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton sit on the stands as they attend the Wimbledon Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 5 JULY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton sit on the stands as they attend the Wimbledon Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. Pictured: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 5 JULY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
We all have to do unpleasant things in our jobs. Kate should suck it up and do her job.
I don’t even understand why it would be unpleasant for her. Show up and watch a game of tennis? Her husband is more closely connected to the Russians than Rybakina at this point, so I don’t see why it would be a big deal.
I doubt she keeps herself informed enough to know about Kyrigios.
C – Well said!
You’re right C!
On another subject, she seems to be due her botox shot: eyebrows have some movement.
Lol – wish going to Wimbledon and getting the best seats in the house was my job! FFS…
The thing I love the most about all this is that because of no points, Medvedev goes to number one. And whether she plays for Kazakhstan or not, Elena is Russian, and she’s made it to the finals. She might even win! All those dopes did was enhance the Russian athletes’ standing in the world of tennis, which is the exact opposite of what they were trying to do. It’s just, chefs kiss, perfect! What England deserved.
Undoubtedly, many Russian athletes directly or indirectly support Putin’s criminal aggression against a neighboring country, or at least try to whitewash it. I think GB decision was the right one, and I don’t think it is comparable to the situation of the
of a tennis player accused (and not yet convicted) of domestic violence.
It’s a good point Kaiser makes about the men’s match and the possibility of KKKate presenting to an accused woman beater/abuser.
They were fine with her hanging around with Andrew until recently, so I wouldn’t give them too much pre-emptive credit. I guess we’ll see.
I think the argument would be that since Wimbledon has allowed these players to compete, then Kate, as patron of the organization, shouldn’t have any problem presenting the trophies. The time to take a stand on issues of political and personal conduct is before the tournament starts, not after the athletes have done all the work.
Kyrgios was only charged with assault 2 or 3 days ago, so well after the tournament started.
Aussie police is waiting to interrogate him as soon as he gets home.
I’m just suggesting what the Wimbledon argument would be. I don’t know that they can do anything about Kyrgios now – as you say the charge just happened. In any case, Kate’s going to do whatever she wants and she won’t give any excuses. It’s not the first time she’s been neglectful as a royal patron.
I have a theory Wimbledon & KP/Kate are not getting on. Wimb pissed that KP made them ban players which caused criticism, Kate skipped the centenary event which is inexcusable. Wimb put Norrie on Court 1 knowing that meant W&K would have to move courts to support the Brit. Kate withholding attendance far more than any other year.
Did KP actually make them ban players? I know the papers made that a storyline but it seems Wimbledon made that choice on heir own. Maybe KP did but I’d be surprised if Wimbledon allowed them that much leeway but then they do have a royal box so idk?
I can see someone like Simon Case having a chat with Wimbledon about the optics.
I don’t think KP reaches that far. Lots of Russian (and Belarusan) athletes have been banned from competing all over the world.
If anything tennis was one of the exceptions that I can think of, along with NHL.
Wimbledon got lots of flack from the tennis association, they ended up taking away ranking points from the players- I can’t imagine that would be at the behest of KP.
I’d be more likely to think the government, considering how BoJo was so excited playing a churchillian saviour in Ukraine.
I agree. I think this was mainly down to the British government. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if KP put a word in too about the sake of ‘optics’ and blah blah blah…
Given how UK’s stance on the Russian war helped to consolidate European governments with regards to military and economic help to Ukraine, I’d say that is one of the only things to Praise Boris Johnson for. No one knows how to exactly behave in this situation, so I would give Kate some flack here.
Seeing as how Boris admitted that he met with a KGB agent without any security and made this agent’s son a member of the House of Lords, let’s hold off on praising him.
Boris has been pro-active in helping Ukraine but it is utterly self-serving.
He doesn’t give a crap about the Ukrainians, he’s always had a Churchillian fantasy and this war is the best risk-free way of fulfilling it.
He’s spent the last few months in parliament talking about ‘our war’.
As many have reminded him the UK is not at war. Yet.
📴 topic
Kate has some bad skin. Her mom and her skin are really a shock when the pictures are non photo shop. All the shopping she’s doing and none is for a dermatologist. Was the video when she was at church and the jubilee Photoshop?
How is it that her skin looks like that so 🔜 from the jubilee
It looks massively dehydrated. She’s always preferred matte makeup, she would do much better with a hydrating dewy finish.
She maybe smokes?
Yes, I think she still does. And the dieting and tanning. But better makeup would do a lot.
Genetics, poor habits, and a lack of taking proper care of yourself. Her real hair also looks pretty bad; very dry and plenty of split-ends.
Smoking is one of the worst things you can do for your skin (and everything else, but we’re talking about skin right now). Those horizontal lines around the mouth that make people look like they’re sucking lemons is a direct (and tough to get rid of) result of smoking. Someone described it to me once as tanning your own hide, hence the leathery look of a smoker’s skin.
The older Khate gets, the more she looks like her mother. That second pic from the top (the one in which Bill is glowering) makes her look so much like Carole. Khate would probably look exactly like Carole if she hadn’t had all the fillers.
She’s only been to Wimbledon once this year, right? that’s the least she’s gone in any year that I can remember. It really does seem like as soon as it became “work” she stopped enjoying it as much, LMAO.
She might still show up to a final, but even during her maternity leaves she would attend for more than one day.
She also didn’t do any non tennis watching events at Wimbledon which she has done recently as patron.
Come on..did you forget? She has all this packing to do fo the moving…. how can she “work” at the same time?
Actually, that’s probably true. They are moving this summer and the children start school in what? 6 weeks? She must have help but still, moving with 3 kids is busy.
Do they pack or just have things at each house?
Let’s not forget that if Djokovic gets to the mens final, Kate might be handing over the trophy to an outspoken anti-vaxxer. Hilarious.
That would be amazing. The photo ops and memes in clever hands would be hilarious.
Hmm. She’s skipped the women’s finals and briefly chatted with the victor on the day of the men’s finals before (Venus vs. Muguruza in 2017). She’ll probably try that move again, but I’m sure she’ll make at least one appearance for finals weekend. It’s the most glamorous and fun part of the event for her after all: showing off an expensive (and often ugly/frumpy/fussy/etc.) dress, making faces for the cameras, and getting to be the center of attention for a brief moment on the Centre Court.
I could be wrong but, I’m sure I read somewhere that Kate hardly ever bothered with the women’s game until Meghan went to support Sabrina. Obviously, if this tid-bit is incorrect I apologise but, I’m pretty sure it’s accurate. So, it really wouldn’t surprise me if she has a “chat” to winner of the ladies final on Sunday.
There are probably lots of reasons for Kate’s non-attendance over most of Wimbledon fortnight but imho from what we know of her I’m going to say William and Kate were on a mini-break. The week before Wimbledon both Kate and William packed in quite a few photo-ops, which is normally a pretty good sign that they’re going to do the “glam” work. Someone here posted they were going to go a holiday but, I honestly thought it was because she/they were going to be hanging around Wimbledon for a fortnight. Kudos to whoever called that one.
The media tried to hide their disappearance with several news sites carrying articles from her attendance at previous years. However, even pictures of her family at Wimbledon couldn’t take away the obvious fact that the royal patron couldn’t be arsed to attend the Centenary celebrations.
I’d be very surprised if she doesn’t present the trophy to the winner of the men’s final. If she doesn’t then I will agree with the poster who said Wimbledon and KP/Kate have had some kind of fall-out.
Kate rarely attended women’s finals until Meghan started dating Harry and it was known that she was friends with Serena Williams. She would watch Federer more often than not. And when Andy Murray made it to the finals. She also rarely sits outside of the royal box and only started doing it when she was made patron.
Neither Khate nor Bulliam has any geopolitical sensibilities, so I doubt she appreciates the mess Wimbledon was contorted into this year. As a high profile patron, Khate is a thorough waste of hair. They ought to fire her flat ass.
God she is such an expensive waste of space. #abolish the monarchy
Kate only wants to present to male competitors she finds attractive. She thinks if she flirts with them, William will see it and be jealous and that will prove her worth.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
Maybe this is why we learned they need to go to Mustique, giving waity an excuse to skip Wimbledon.
I’m just looking through the photos and my goodness, is there a less photogenic couple than Kate and William? These two are so not made for cameras!
Kate’s apparent lack of presence at Wimbledon does not speak well of her, whatever the reason, especially since she has just taken over the patronage from the Queen. Perhaps now that she’s patron, she should follow the Queen’s example and virtually never attend.? I don’t remember Kate appearing at a women’s final until she appeared with Meghan. I guess Meghan wouldn’t be allowed to occupy the royal box by herself? I think the Kent presence is sorely missed. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to the women’s final.
Apparently just announced: Kate will attend the Ladies’ Singles Final and W&K will attend the Mens’ Singles Final. Just scrolled past the announcement on Twitter
Interesting. Which could it be, Kate not happy how this turned out, or she wanted him away from those incredibly fit tennis pro ladies.
LOL, I wonder if she worked out for this event? Constantly competing.
William almost never attends the women’s finals. It was quite surprising when he appeared for it last year (though I don’t believe he attended the men’s final, which was even more surprising). Anyway, didn’t think the finalists in question would be a deterrent for her attendance because she loves the attention too much.
To say she’s the patron, her absence has been nothing less of shameful. She’s attended two (2) matches over the sake of the tournament and hasn’t even bothered with the wheelchair players, like she did last year for a quick photo op. It just proves her involvement is only for appearances sake and WHEN she can be bothered to turn up. The laziest person to ever roam this earth.
Wimbledon hasn’t been so appealing for Kate since it got classed as “work” for her.
Some patron! Walked out half way through a very exciting men’s double final. If ever there was a time to exercise “soft diplomacy” this was it. With increasing cries from the Australians that they would like to replace the monarchy this was an excellent opportunity to show that Australia are important to the commonwealth! She’s made so few appearances this week surely, staying around to hand out the trophies on finals day isn’t too much to ask of her?
Although no-one in the commentary box explicitly voiced their annoyance about her disappearance, there were a few digs! One of the presenters made a comment about the people watching on Henman Hill being “hard core” and maybe they should be invited into Centre Court and take the empty seats in the royal box.