‘Meghan will cheer me on’, tennis queen Serena
WITH her domination of the women’s game, she is seen as tennis royalty. But Serena Williams will have actual royalty cheer her on in tomorrow’s Wimbledon’s ladies’ singles final – her friend Meghan Markle.
The Duchess of Sussex will be watching from the Royal Box as her fellow American tries to become only the second mother in more than a century to win the title.
Ms Williams, 36, who faces Germany’s Angelique Kerber, was a guest at Meghan’s marriage to Prince Harry in May and spoke last night about her bond with the former actress.
‘We always had a wonderful friendship,’ she said. ‘Every year for a couple years she comes to Wimbledon, has supported me... Now she’s supporting me in a different role but our friendship is still exactly the same.’
Asked if she sees herself as ‘tennis royalty’, Ms Williams, who has won Wimbledon seven times, replied: ‘If there was a royalty, I probably would be.
‘If there was a Wimbledon royalty, I would like to believe I would be Wimbledon royalty because I’ve done pretty well here in the past.’ Ms Williams said she has surprised herself by reaching the final, nine months after she nearly died following the birth of daughter Olympia.
She was bedridden for weeks after developing blood clots in the lungs and abdomen following an emergency caesarean.
Australian Evonne Goolagong. won the title in 1980, three years after having her first child, and is the only mother to win Wimbledon in the past 100 years.