Or maybe Jannik Sinner just likes playing against Casper Ruud. Whatever it was, the top-ranked Sinner cranked up his level to near perfection at times in a 6-0, 6-1 dismantling of Ruud in the Italian Open quarterfinals — after Sinner was granted an audience with the new tennis-playing pope just down the road at the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, is an avid tennis player and fan and had said that he would be up for a charity match when it was suggested by a journalist.