Pope meets Sinner: No. 1 participant offers Pope Leo XIV a racket on Italian Open off day

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has made peace with Jannik Sinner.

The highest-ranked tennis participant visited the brand new pope on Wednesday, gave him a tennis racket and provided to play, throughout an off day for Sinner on the Italian Open.

Leo, the primary American pope, is an avid tennis participant and fan and had mentioned earlier this week that he can be up for a charity match when it was urged by a journalist.

However on the time, Leo joked “we can’t invite Sinner,” an obvious reference to the English that means of Sinner’s final title.

By Wednesday, all appeared forgotten.

“It’s an honor,” Sinner mentioned in Italian as he and his dad and mom arrived in a reception room of the Vatican’s auditorium. Holding one in all his rackets and giving Leo one other and a ball, the three-time Grand Slam champion urged a fast volley. However the pope regarded round on the antiques and mentioned, “Better not.”

Leo, a 69-year-old from Chicago, then appeared to joke about his white cassock and its appropriateness for Wimbledon, maybe a reference to the All England Membership’s all-white clothes rule.

He requested how the Italian Open was going. “Now I’m in the game,” Sinner mentioned. “At the beginning of the tournament, it was a bit difficult.”

Sinner has a quarterfinal match on Thursday in his first event again after a three-month ban for doping that was judged to be an unintended contamination.

He’ll subsequent face freshly topped Madrid champion Casper Ruud. Sinner is trying to develop into the primary Italian man to win the Rome title since Adriano Panatta in 1976.

Throughout the viewers, Angelo Binaghi, the pinnacle of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, gave Leo an honorary federation card.

“We all felt the passion that Leo XIV has for our sport and this filled us with pride,” Binaghi mentioned in an announcement. “We hope to embrace the Holy Father again soon, maybe on a tennis court.”

The pope and Sinner posed for photographs in entrance of the Davis Cup trophy that Sinner helped Italy win for the second consecutive time final 12 months. Additionally on show within the room was the Billie Jean King Cup trophy gained by Italy in 2024, the most important ladies’s staff occasion in tennis.

Earlier within the week, after Leo’s first quip about not wanting to ask him, Sinner mentioned it was “a good thing for us tennis players” that the brand new pope likes to play the game.

Along with tennis, Leo is an avid Chicago White Sox baseball fan.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, was a lifelong fan of Buenos Aires soccer membership San Lorenzo.