ROME — It was becoming that when Pope Leo XIV was elected, the Italian Open tennis event was being performed simply up the highway from the Vatican.
As a result of tennis is the game that the primary American pope likes to play.
“I take into account myself fairly the beginner tennis participant,” Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, stated in a 2023 interview with the Augustinian Order after taking up the Vatican’s highly effective Dicastery for Bishops following years as a missionary in Peru.
“Since leaving Peru I’ve had few events to apply so I’m trying ahead to getting again on the courtroom,” Leo added. “Not that this new job has left me a lot free time for it up to now.”
Whereas the Mediterranean local weather in Rome makes tennis a year-round out of doors sport and there are courts everywhere in the capital, Leo will possible have even much less time to play now that he’s the pope.
However Greek professional Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been ranked as excessive as No. 3, stated he can be completely satisfied to hit some balls with Leo if he finds the time.
“Why not?” Tsitsipas stated when requested by The Related Press after successful his second-round match on Friday. “I really feel like figures like this possibly can educate people issues. … I really feel fortunate that I used to be right here when that bought introduced.”
Coco Gauff, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, stated she almost joined the crowds operating to St. Peter’s Sq. when she bought an alert on her telephone {that a} new pope had been elected.
“However I spotted with the match the following day it is in all probability not good to run like a mile sprinting,” Gauff stated after successful her opening match.
“Hopefully he watches some girls’s tennis,” Gauff stated. “I don’t know if popes go to sporting occasions … however possibly he’ll come to a match sooner or later.”
When Leo was elected after which launched on the Vatican on Thursday, first-round tennis matches had been being performed on the Foro Italico.
Leo’s brother says the brand new pope can also be a fan of the Chicago White Sox baseball staff.
