Vegan Tennis Players: A Surprising Amount Of Top Tennis Players Are Vegan

Plant-Based Tennis Players

Some top tennis players aren’t vegan, but they are vegetarian instead. Here are a few honorable mentions and the reasons why they’re on a plant-based diet.

Novak Djokovic

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, ranked the world’s top player by the ATP, the Association of Tennis Professionals, is on a plant-based diet. Although he doesn’t qualify himself as a vegan, he says that his views support this whole movement and lifestyle.

Since he doesn’t eat any meat, fish, or dairy products, he could still be considered a vegan, but he chooses not to label his diet. Fair enough!

He chose to be on a plant-based diet in 2010 when he learned that he had a gluten intolerance. A nutritionist, Dr. Cetojevic, who diagnosed this intolerance, advised him to keep away from gluten and dairy.

The tennis player chose to stay away from gluten and dairy, but also meat. And this has apparently really improved his overall performance, fitness, and health. So what’s not to love on a vegan diet?

Peter Burwash

Another honorable mention is Peter Burwash, a retired tennis player who is among the hall of fame of ATP. He still coaches other tennis players and, most importantly, has been a vegetarian for over 45 years now.

Pretty impressive, if you ask me. For him, being a vegetarian means having respect for life while giving yourself discipline and humility.

Suzanna McGee

Finally, Suzanna McGee is another tennis player who is vegan. We didn’t include her in our top 6 vegan tennis players because she isn’t at the top of the game yet. But this doesn’t mean that her career is not as impressive. It’s the contrary!

This Czech tennis player switched from being a bodybuilder to a competitive tennis player. She has the title of Ms. Natural Olympia champion, speaks six languages, and has two master’s degrees in computing sciences. She even has a degree in plant-based nutrition.

And did I mention she is vegan? She is not only vegan, but she is also a raw vegan. This means that she doesn’t eat cooked foods, which can be healthier for some and help to better digest the nutrients your body needs.

As a bodybuilder, she was eating meat since a lot of bodybuilders still believe you need to eat animal proteins to be in your top shape. But then, Suzanna McGee started to play tennis.

To be a competitive tennis player, she slowly started eating less and less meat until she was a full vegetarian. This tennis player claims she didn’t do it on purpose and that she was just trying to eat healthier. She also cut dairy products out of her diet progressively.

Suzanna McGee researched nutrition a lot and saw all the benefits a plant-based diet could bring. And then, she realized how animals are treated all over the world and decided to become a vegan for good.

This competitive player has been vegan for about two years now and doesn’t regret her decision at all. She says that her decision helps the animals, the environment and improves her overall health and fitness.

She also claims that veganism helps with your compassion, just like what Peter Burwash says. The tennis player promotes veganism in her everyday life and educates people gently.

Other vegan athletes

Also, there are some top athletes who aren’t tennis players, but are vegan.

That’s the case of Lewis Hamilton, the best Formula 1 driver, who states that veganism helps him improve his performances, as it’s helping him with his endurance, strength, alertness, and reaction time.

Another top vegan athlete who’s vegan is Kyrie Irving. This young NBA player has been vegan since 2017 for his fitness. And it pays off. He’s promised to have a great career in front of him.

Jermain Defoe, one of the best goalkeepers in Europe and in the UK, is also vegan. He actually said that his success mostly comes from the effects of his vegan diet.

If you want yet another example of a top vegan athlete who decided to become a vegan to improve her overall fitness, Tia Blanco is the one. This top surfer also credited her success and fitness to her vegan diet.

At first, she was a vegetarian and then decided to become a vegan for environmental reasons.

Let me give you a final example: Tom Brady. Although he doesn’t consider himself to be fully vegan, he qualifies his diet as a plant-based one, and he inspires his fans to switch their diet too. How so, you might ask?

Well, he started his own meal kit delivery service to help people eat more vegetables and eventually change their diet to a plant-based one. He influences people to do better and eat better, which is why he is included in the honorable mentions list.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is a surprising amount of tennis players who are vegan. In fact, the world’s top tennis players are vegan or have a plant-based diet. They often choose to make this switch in their diet to help the environment, to help animals, and stand against animal cruelty.

A lot of these athletes have partnerships with environmental organizations that help animals all over the world and use their influence to convince fans to make a switch in their lives too.

These ethical motives are not the only reasons why the top tennis players in the world are vegan. Most of them claim that a plant-based diet improves their overall health, performance, precision, and fitness.

A vegan diet can entirely change someone’s mental and physical health. If you don’t believe me, look at Venus Williams and how a vegan diet practically saved her.

So if the world’s top vegan tennis players and other athletes are vegan or at least on a plant-based diet, why shouldn’t you try that for yourself? You can just start one simple step at a time. As you can see, there are plenty of reasons why being on a vegan diet can benefit you!