Pope Leo is a tennis guy. That checks out.

['Jake Martin', 'More Jake Martin', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] America Magazine 2025-09-04 00:00:00

Like many of us, I took Pope Francis’ death on Easter Monday of this year hard. But all of the above paled in comparison when it was revealed that our new pope was a tennis player. Within the first week of his election, Pope Leo met with Italian tennis player, Jannick Sinner, currently ranked number one in the world. 1 rated tennis player in the world, May 14, 2025, during a meeting at the Vatican. Though I play tennis regularly, I haven’t played an actual match in years, something which surprises people when I tell them.