Leo XIV receives tennis player Jannik Sinner in the Vatican

Pope Leo XIV is passionate about tennis, a sport he has practiced since he was little. “I consider myself an amateur tennis player,” said Cardinal Robert Prevost in an interview granted to the Augustinian order.

The Pontiff practiced this racket sport in his childhood and also during his years as a bishop of Chiclayo, in Peru. “Since I left Peru, I had few chances of practicing it, so I really want to return to the track,” he laughs in that interview.

Although his work as a prefect of Dicastery for bishops did not leave him much free time, Cardinal Prevost practiced this sport whenever he could.

A few steps from the building of the Holy Office of the Vatican, where he lived in recent years as a prefect of Dicastery, is the general curia of the Augustinians, where he almost daily came to lunch.

In the rear of the General Curia, in the gardens behind the Agustinian Patristic Institute, the order to which the Holy Father belongs has a tennis court, where the then Cardinal Prevost played in his spare time.

Father Alejandro Moral, a prior general of the Augustinians, revealed in an interview with ACI Press that the cardinal was able to play a tennis game before the conclave began where Pontiff was elected. Something that “did a lot of good” before locking up behind the Vatican walls, he said.

His love for tennis has not gone unnoticed during the first days of his pontificate. Last Sunday, during his meeting with journalists, Argentina Elisabetta Piqué and the Spanish journalist Eva Fernández challenged him to a beneficial doubles.

Although he recognized with humor that “he does not play well,” the Pope accepted the proposal to participate in a charity, joking: “As long as you do not bring Sinner.” His comment was a nice allusion to the last name of the young Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, which in English means “sinner”, and currently occupies the first place worldwide.

The Tennis Masters of Rome is playing these days, coinciding with the choice of the Holy Father. Sinner’s ears came the joke of Pope Leo XIV, who laughs affirmed that “it is good for us, tennis players, having a Pope who likes this sport.”

Regarding a hand to hand against the Pope, he said that “for the future, we’ll see. Who knows.”

After this nice anecdote, Pope Leo XIV received Jannik Sinner and his family in the Vatican on Wednesday, May 14. During the meeting, the Holy Father asked him for his last games in the tournament and, between jokes, he said: “And you would leave me in Wimbledon?”

The young tennis player, current number one in the world, showed his racket and proposed to play a game. The Pope, laughing, declined the offer with humor: “I’m afraid to break something here!” He said, pointing out the furniture of the Apostolic Palace where the audience was developed.

During the visit, Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation (FITP), also delivered a card as an honorary partner and presented the Davis Cup that Italy has conquered in the last two editions.

Sinner confessed that this encounter with Pedro’s successor was “a true honor.”