Kate Expectations

Kate Middleton Goes Full Tennis Pro—with Andy Murray’s Mom’s Help

The Duchess takes part in a tennis clinic in Scotland.
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Both by Andrew Milligan/WPA Pool/Getty Images.

The Duchess of Cambridge is, famously, a very passionate tennis fan, known to express and contort her face (we mean “contort” here in the most elegant sense) in the stands at Wimbledon every year. She was even named a patron of the All England Club by the Queen, earlier this year. And while we have long dreamed of getting the chance to watch Kate spar with Serena or Andy Murray on the grass of Wimbledon in an exhibition match, what will have to suffice is today’s clinic, which Kate participated in with Andy Murray’s . . . mother, Judy.

After a series of engagements in Edinburgh today (for which Kate wore a dark-green Max Mara coat that she has worn before), the Duchess attended a Tennis on the Road coaching clinic, led by Judy Murray, and held at Craigmount High School (the program was launched by Judy in 2014 in an effort to grow “the game at a grassroots level.”) Kate instructed the children and adults assembled in something called “balloon tennis,” which looks about as relevant to tennis as doing a handstand for 30 seconds (but still fun!), and also in a racquet-twirling exercise (that one we know about—it’s very important to intimidate your opponent by spinning your racquet suavely in your hands as the serve is about to come in).

Kate was wearing (what, you thought we weren’t going to tell you what Kate was wearing?—that’s basically a banned-from-the-Internet-forever offense) $125 Asics trainers and Monreal London “tuxedo” track pants, which, per the Daily Mail, cost $306.