World No. 1 tennis player Jannik Sinner met with Pope Leo XIV, a newly elected Pope, during a private audience in the Vatican on Wednesday 14 May. Sinner is currently participating in the Italian Open, the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome, which also serves as the final heating for this month of the French Open.
The meeting of Jannika Sinner with Pope Leo XIV comes a week after the latter easily noted that he had not met a sinner and created a Catholic pun on the surname of the Italian star. Pope Leo was in a jovial mood and exchanged jokes with Sinner after he asked for his victory on Tuesday on Tuesday.
“Wimbledon would let me play,” the Pope joked, pulling laughter as he referred to his white clothing.
Leo also asked if the sinner of the rocket he introduced to him was the one he used in professional matches.
Sinner was accompanied by his parents and president of the Italian tennis Federation Alberto Binaghi for a private audience.
Leo, a well -known sport enthusiast, revealed in an interview of 2023 that, according to Reuters agency, the agency is “quite amateur tennis players”.
The Italian Open has been the first competitive Sinner tournament since returning to a competitive event after a three -month doping ban. Sinner said before the Masters 1000 tournament that he had no high expectations of the tournament because he was returning after a long release.
Sinner, who received goodbye to the first round, was in good form and showed no signs of resiness. In Rome, the ensemble has not yet fallen and on Thursday on Thursday, Casper Ruud is facing the sixth seed.
The quarterfinals will be the first big test for Sinner when Ruud headed for Rome after Madrid Masters won in April.
Despite the ban on doping, Sinner will not miss the Grand Slam tournament. At the beginning of this year, Sinner won the Australian Open and defeated Alexander Zverev in the final.
Published:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
May 14, 2025
