Pope Leo XIV makes time for tennis every week and explains it by the Augustinian tradition of caring for body and spirit: the Rule of Saint Augustine values good habits

Robert Prevost, while still a cardinal, admitted that he considered himself "quite the amateur" on the court, and regretted that after many years of mission in Peru he had hardly any opportunity to practise.

Having moved to Rome, he took up the racket again and, according to the Prior General of the Augustinians, plays weekly: for the sake of fitness, for pleasure and, frankly, to relieve stress. The court is close at hand, at the order's General Curia near the Vatican.

The scene with which it all began turned out almost comic. At a meeting with the press, journalists proposed a charity match involving the pope, and the pontiff joked that there was only one person who could not be invited: Jannik Sinner, whose surname in English means "sinner". A couple of days later the sin was absolved. Sinner, who had a free day at the Rome tournament, came to the Vatican with his parents, gave the pope a racket and offered to play.

In a recent video address the Pope spoke of sport as an instrument of peace and of dialogue between peoples. His formula: in life, as in a game, no one is saved alone; we need others in order to grow, to learn respect and to celebrate victories together, and sport should be a school of brotherhood rather than of empty rivalry, a place of encounter rather than of exclusion.