Novak Djokovic Wins His 17th Grand Slam Title And Reveals He Went Vegan For Ethical Reasons

Vegan tennis superstar won his eighth Australian Open title last week while playing on 'plant-based fuel'. 

Serbian player defeated Dominic Thiem after a tough five-set final match and reclaimed his world no- 1 title.

Djokovic has been following the vegan diet for more than four and a half years, and he praises it for his incredible performance and high energy levels that helped him to become one the greatest players of all times. However, over time he came under sheer scrutiny because of his utterly plant-based diet.

He revealed that many people doubted whether he could go on with a vegan diet, including his family and friends. 

He said in the press conference, "I'm very pleased to be plant-based and play at this level for the last four and a half years. There's been a lot of criticism, people around me didn't really think that I could do that, there was a lot of doubt and question marks, I've been through different phases of adapting to the new lifestyle."

Djokovic said that his diet was based on a higher ethical grounds while he couldn't stand what was happening to the animals across the world. 

 "It is a lifestyle, not just a diet, because you have the ethical reasons as well, being conscious of what is happening in the animal world, the slaughtering of animals and farming and everything, that there is also a huge impact on climate change that people maybe don't talk about as much.    "It's more than a performance reason for me, it's a lifestyle, it's an approach, it's something that I'm really proud of, and hopefully, that community grows even more." 

Praising the benefits of vegan diet he added:

 "Hopefully, I can inspire other athletes that it is possible to be plant-based and to recover well, to have strength, to have muscles.

"I'm not a weightlifter, of course, but I do have an optimal balance between the strength and power and speed... Nothing seems to be missing. I'll keep enjoying that."