Kate and William meet Wimbledon staff ahead of men’s final

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were greeted by gloomy skies at SW19 as they arrived to watch Roger Federer make his bid for a ninth Wimbledon title.

Ahead of Federer's showdown with Novak Djokovic, the royal couple, in their first joint outing of this year's tournament, met with four of the club's rigorously drilled ball boys and girls.

Kate arrived dressed in a powder blue 1950s-style dress from a collection by London-based designer Emilia Wickstead, while William looked casual in a grey suit jacket with navy trousers.

The royal pair also met with senior figures from the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), including head referee and former player Andrew Jarrett.

Their pre-match meet and greet was momentarily interrupted when Federer crossed the bridge between the Millennium building and Centre Court.

Federer was greeted by loud cheers from fans waiting on the path below.

"Super Sunday" is the duchess's third trip to Wimbledon this year.

She attended in the first week to watch Federer on Centre Court, after taking the unusual step of going to the outer courts to watch British hopeful Harriet Dart play.

Kate, who is a patron of the AELTC, also attended the ladies final between Serena Williams and Romanian Simona Halep on Saturday.

She was joined in the royal box by sister-in-law the Duchess of Sussex and her sister Pippa Matthews.

Following her straight sets victory Halep said it was an "honour" and "an extra boost" to play in front of the duchesses.

Earlier in the tournament, Federer revealed he had recently played tennis with Kate's son Prince George, with the 20-time grand slam winner describing the young royal as a "cute boy" who had "good" technique.

Dedicated fans, who have queued for tickets throughout the tournament, braved some early morning rain to see the match – with some favouring Federer over Djokovic.

"That was miserable I actually wanted to go home at that point," Federer fan Matthew Denham said of the rain.

The 29-year-old had arrived with friends on Saturday afternoon to get ground passes and watch the action from Henman Hill.

By 10am on Sunday the rain had cleared and Mr Denham, from Clapham, was "feeling good" about seeing the Swiss star play in the final.

Another Federer fan in the queue, Colm O'Donnell from Ashford, Kent, has been attending the tournament since the first Saturday and had watched the Swiss player multiple times.

The 32-year-old said the rain was "terrible" but it would "worth it" to see Federer win his ninth title.

Shervin Abdolhamidi, 24, from New York, another Federer supporter, was hoping to get a resale ticket for Centre Court, despite admitting his chances were "50/50".

"I can watch it from my phone, it will be worth it even just to get in to see him win," he said.

Today's clash will be Federer's 12th Wimbledon final and, at 37 years and 340 days old, he is the oldest men's singles finalist since Ken Rosewall in 1974.

He has 20 grand slam titles under his belt to Djokovic's 15 and between them the pair have won 256.5 million US dollars (£201.5 million) in prize money over their careers.

Among the famous names to receive an invite to the royal box are Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, The Avengers' Tom Hiddleston and Fight Club star Edward Norton.

Multi-billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also received a coveted invite.

He is due to be accompanied by his new girlfriend Lauren Sanchez following his split from his wife of 26 years MacKenzie Bezos.

Opera singer Katherine Jenkins and her husband Andrew Levitas also arrived at Wimbledon ahead of play on Saturday morning.

"This is our favourite day out in probably all the London summer events," Ms Jenkins said.

The Welsh singer sang at the opening of Centre Court's retractable roof in 2009 and said it had "a great acoustic".

"Always my family has been into tennis and I think my mum was very proud when I got to sing here," she said.

A host of former tennis greats are also due be in prime seats in the royal box, including former world number one Rod Laver and 18-time grand slam winner Chrissie Evert.

The match is due to get under way on Centre Court at 2pm.