By NICOLE WINFIELD and ANDREW DAMPF
VATICAN CITY (AP) — 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 stated earlier this week that he could be up for a charity match when it was instructed 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 stated in Italian as he and his dad and mom arrived in a reception room of the Vatican’s auditorium. Holding considered one of his rackets and giving Leo one other and a ball, the three-time Grand Slam champion instructed a fast volley. However the pope regarded round on the antiques and stated, “Better not.”
Italy’s Jannik Sinner, left, shares a lightweight second with Pope Leo XIV on the event of their assembly on the Vatican, Wednesday, Might 14, 2025. (Vatican Media through AP)
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 stated. “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 unintentional contamination.
He’ll subsequent face freshly-crowned Madrid champion Casper Ruud. Sinner is making an attempt to grow to be the primary Italian man to win the Rome title since Adriano Panatta in 1976.
Through the viewers, Angelo Binaghi, the top 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 stated in a press release. “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 received by Italy in 2024, the largest ladies’s crew occasion in tennis.
Earlier within the week, after Leo’s first quip about not wanting to ask him, Sinner stated 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.
Dampf reported from Rome.
Related Press faith protection receives assist by way of the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely chargeable for this content material.
