Love the Sinner: Pope Leo XIV Meets Tennis Star at the Vatican

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 reported Monday. 

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.

More in Vatican

Vatican Commission Rejects Female Diaconate, Although Without a "definitive judgment"

Read the article

Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and assistant podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and in the past has worked as a writer, as a producer for public radio, and as a videographer.