Pope Leo XIV met Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner at the Vatican on Wednesday.
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Photos shared by Vatican News show the newly elected pope, who has described himself as “quite the amateur tennis player,” warmly greeting the 23-year-old Italian and his family as well as the president of the Italian Tennis Federation, Alberto Binaghi.
Sinner, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, is from a predominantly German-speaking region in Italy’s far north. He became the first Italian man to win a major tennis title since 1976 when he bested Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in 2024, earning kudos from the late Pope Francis.
Sinner is currently competing in the 2025 Italian Open, taking place in Rome.
Greeting the pope in a room off the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, Sinner presented Pope Leo with a tennis racket and ball and asked the pope in Italian if he wanted to play.
The pope responded: “Here we’ll break something. Best not to!”
Leo also joked that “Wimbledon would let” him compete in his white cassock, a reference to the famous rule at the All England Club tennis tournament that players must wear white.
The pope had previously been asked by journalists about whether he would like to play tennis again — perhaps a charity match — and “seemed game” but quipped that “we can’t invite Sinner,” in an apparent pun on the English meaning of Sinner’s last name, the AP reportedMonday.
When asked about the pope’s comment, Sinner genially responded that it’s “a good thing for us tennis players” that Leo likes the sport and expressed openness to hitting with the pontiff in the future.
This article was originally published by CNA.
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Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, as a producer for public radio, and as a videographer. He is based in St. Louis.
