At the Taste of Tennis event ahead of US Open 2023, players dish on their favorite pre-match meals, and there’s a common answer.
If you want to be a successful tennis player, one of your favorite meals must be spaghetti bolognese. Just ask the professional athletes themselves.
Numerous tennis players showed up to Citi Taste of Tennis NY on Thursday night at Gotham Hall and almost the entire field admitted to enjoying the carb-filled, tomato-based sauce mixed with beef dish. Those who didn't pick spaghetti bolognese chose a related pasta dish.
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"My all-time favorite meal is probably spaghetti bolognese," tennis legend John McEnroe said. "Well I think it's a tennis thing -- you can digest it fairly easily."
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Moments later, men's world No. 4 Holger Rune agreed with McEnroe's selection.
"It's a good carbohydrate that you need before matches and it tastes very good," the Dane said.
Women's world No. 5 Ons Jabeur from Tunisia typically enjoys a healthy Mediterranean diet. When in New York, however, she goes with spaghetti bolognese. There's just one caveat: it must be spicy.
"If I can get it [spaghetti bolognese] from a real Italian place, definitely."
Other related pre-meal variations came from American Tommy Paul who said he relies on the carbs and protein to dominate. The No. 14 ranked player defeated world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz at the Canadian Open two weeks ago.
Another pasta-inspired variation was from rising star Alycia Parks with pasta chicken alfredo. The American star won her biggest doubles title in Cincinnati last week with partner American Taylor Townsend.
Things took a twist with world No. 8 Andrey Rublev who said he loves his sushi as a pre-match meal.
But why not spaghetti bolognese Mr. Rublev?
"I like pasta but the problem is that most of the time at the tennis club it's not really good," he said. "Once you try pasta in Italy, you cannot eat the rest of the pasta."
The event also featured numerous chefs across different cuisines, including but not limited to Chef Bao Bao, Chef Jassi Bindra and Chef Sujan Sarkar.
Some of the eats highlighted at the event included watermelon and Shrimp carpaccio and cauliflower and couscous tabbouleh courtesy of Chef Alain Allegretti of Fig & Olive, salt fish and shrimp fregola courtesy of Chef Damian Leach of Barbados Tourism and gnocchi bolognese courtesy of Chef Chad Brown of Hunt & Fish Club.
The U.S. Open is set to kick off on Monday, August 28 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
