PARIS — When Pope Leo XIV was elected last year and it emerged that he was a tennis player, his love of the sport was quickly celebrated during an audience with top-ranked Jannik Sinner.In the ensuing months, Leo has tried to set aside time in his busy schedule to play the sport every week as part of his Augustinian devotion to physical activity and spirituality.The Rule of St. Augustine, an ancient guide for religious life, highlights the value of good habits.“He’s trying to keep some regularity to his routine that comes from the Rule,” said the Rev. Rob Hagan, Prior of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova and team chaplain for the men’s basketball and football teams at Villanova University — the pope’s alma mater in Pennsylvania.Leo’s devotion to St. Augustine was evident when he made a pilgrimage during his Africa trip in April to the archaeological ruins in Algeria where the influential 5th century theologian and philosopher lived and died and wrote some of the most important works in Western thought.The pope “highlights a very underappreciated Augustinian value — especially in this noisy world — and that is to develop your interior life,” Hagan added in an interview with The Associated Press.Leo likes to spend Mondays and Tuesdays at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo in the hills outside Rome — where he plays tennis with his secretary, Monsignor Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, and goes swimming and horseback riding, too.Before becoming pope, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost talked about his tennis skills in an interview with the Augustinian Order. “I consider myself quite the amateur tennis player,” he said, in the 2023 interview after taking over the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops following years as a missionary in Peru.“Since leaving Peru I have had few occasions to practice so I am looking forward to getting back on the court,” he added.Marin Cilic, the Croatian pro and 2014 U.S. Open champion, said it was “amazing to hear that Pope Leo loves tennis.“It’s a beautiful game. You enjoy it especially when you are playing without pressure of time, without pressure of tournaments,” Cilic, who comes from the Bosnian pilgrimage town of Medjugorje, said in an interview ahead of the French Open.Even without the pressure of a tournament, tennis is a very mental game. Staying focused a …
