{"id":686570,"date":"2026-07-11T20:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T20:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/686570\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T20:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T20:50:18","slug":"kate-hails-inspirational-wimbledon-finalist-who-plays-through-cancer-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/686570\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate hails \u2018inspirational\u2019 Wimbledon finalist who plays through cancer treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Princess of Wales<\/a> has told a Wimbledon<\/a> finalist that she is \u201cinspirational\u201d for continuing to play tennis while undergoing treatment for cancer.<\/p>\n

Canadian tennis player Gabriela Dabrowski, who will play in the ladies\u2019 doubles final on Centre Court<\/a> on Sunday, met Kate<\/a> at the championships on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Wearing a strawberry red belted top and red pleated midi skirt, the princess spoke with Dabrowski before taking her seat in the royal box to watch the ladies\u2019 singles final.<\/p>\n

Dabrowski, 34, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024, and has continued to play throughout her treatment \u2013 something she discovered Kate knew about already when they spoke.<\/p>\n

The tennis player said: \u201cI guess someone told her, so she acknowledged that and just said it was amazing that I was still playing going through treatment, and she said it was very inspirational, which I feel the same likewise with her story as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a very beautiful moment. I didn\u2019t expect to be emotional, but yeah, very strange feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dabrowski, who has a \u201cfew more years\u201d of hormone therapy left to undergo, said Kate told her that she believes sport can \u201cprove that your body is still strong\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the end of June, Kate, who herself revealed she was being treated for cancer in 2024, took on the Three Peaks Challenge in aid of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.<\/p>\n

The future queen completed the challenge, which involves climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales, within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Dabrowski said: \u201cThat\u2019s what she loves about sport, is that you can still prove that your body is strong, and so I think that was that was really cool to hear from her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that she loves her sport. So yeah, just a beautiful moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in the line-up to meet Kate was Shirley Rodriguez Yugsi, 11, who performed the coin toss for the ladies\u2019 singles final on Centre Court, representing the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI).<\/p>\n

Shirley said meeting the princess was \u201cunbelievable\u201d, adding: \u201cIt was like a dream. I didn\u2019t think it was happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing. I would have never thought that I would get to shake her hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

She said Kate asked her what she was going to be doing that afternoon, and Shirely told her she had been selected for the coin toss.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said she was proud of me for doing for achieving it\u2026 for being the one picked to do it,\u201d Shirley said.<\/p>\n

Shirley has been a part of the WJTI for eight years.<\/p>\n

Funded by the Wimbledon Foundation, the WJTI is a community outreach programme which aims to introduce children from across Merton and Wandsworth to tennis, developing their skills and building their confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just improving my life a lot,\u201d Shirley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that my mindset is more organised, and when I play tennis, it\u2019s like the only place I can escape from reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some, it may be reading books. For me, it\u2019s tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Prince Louis wants to become Wimbledon ball boy, Kate suggests<\/a><\/p>\n

Two men arrested over alleged murder in London as body found in fields<\/a><\/p>\n

Heatwave to continue into weekend with record temperatures and wildfire risks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Princess of Wales has told a Wimbledon finalist that she is \u201cinspirational\u201d for continuing to play tennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-686570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}