Kate Middleton might have watched a family friend lose the Wimbledon final Sunday—Roger Federer, who lost to Novak Djokovic, attended Pippa Middleton's wedding—but at least she came away with a cute gift for her youngest son. As Metro reports, legendary tennis player Stan Smith handed a tiny sneaker (an Adidas Stan Smith, naturally), to the Duchess of Cambridge as she sat in the royal box, signed in gold ink and dedicated to Prince Louis. (Worry not: she later received an Adidas shoe box, which probably contained the right shoe.)
Sure, one-year-old Prince Louis might be a little too little to hit the courts just yet, but with an endorsement from Stan Smith himself, he's bound to pick up a racket once his tiny baby hands allow it, right?
As Hello! reported earlier this month, the Cambridge family shares a love of tennis, particularly five-year-old Prince George, who's already taking lessons from the pros. Speaking at Wimbledon, Roger Federer talked about coaching the young royal—and about being George's favorite tennis player. "At that stage it's all about just touch the ball, it's already good. Same with my boys," Federer said. "I think I have a little advantage that I actually spent some time, you know, with him," he added. "I'm the only player he's ever met. Then you have a little head start in who is your favorite player."
Federer's got high hopes for the mini royals' futures in tennis. "I love to see that they're into tennis or into sports," he said, adding, "I hope that [George will] still say the same in a few years' time."
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Emily Dixon is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives. She’s also a committed Beyoncé, Kacey Musgraves, and Tracee Ellis Ross fan, an enthusiastic but terrible ballet dancer, and a proud Geordie lass.
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