Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic says his vegan diet is the secret to his success.
Djokovic—who is currently ranked the world’s No.2 best in men’s singles tennis—comes from a family of food-lovers; his parents used to own a pizza restaurant in Kopaonik, Serbia. He still loves food and has even opened his own vegan restaurant, Eqvita, where he lives in Monte Carlo.
But for Djokovic, food isn’t just gustatory pleasure. It’s the key to his success. “Because of my family, I’ve always had a love for food,” he explained. “But as an athlete, it became something more.”
“[Food is] the fuel that determines how I play, how I recover, and how alert I am on the court,” he added. “I attribute a great deal of my professional success to my diet.”
Is Novak Djokovic Vegan?
In a bid to convince others of the benefits of a plant-based diet, he joined the 2018 documentary “The Game Changers” as an executive producer. The film—which features a number of successful athletes including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lewis Hamilton—is all about debunking the myth that meat is a necessary form of protein.
According to Djokovic, he became involved with the film toward the end of the project, because he “wasn’t very vocal about being a plant-based athlete.”
“They heard that during Wimbledon last year when someone asked me in the press conference,” he said. “They wanted me to be a part of it.”
“I was definitely very happy to be a part of a very impressive group of people,” he added. “From sport, the movie industry, different fields of life, very successful people who are eating plant-based, being healthy, happy and successful in what they do. This is what it is all about.”
Formula One driver Hamilton has also attributed his success to his vegan diet. He recently told GQ, “ultimately, you want to feel great. You want to have energy, to be consistent, you don’t want to have to the big oscillations and highs and lows in your energy levels. Veganism has eradicated that.”
