Vasek Pospisil: That's why he drinks maple syrup
Vasek Pospisil has played more successfully than in a long time. Is it the maple syrup?
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Feb 13, 2020, 02:27 pm
What used to be the banana is now actually the small plastic packet with liquid energy. Or in the case of Novak Djokovic: the date. Now Vasek Pospisil could have set a new trend in terms of the small snack on the court: maple syrup!
Already in the previous week during his run to the final in Montpellier , the Canadian had been spotted taking a sip of maple syrup while changing sides. Now Pospisil trusted in his game against Daniil Medvedev in Rotterdam.
With success: Pospisil sensationally won 6: 4, 6: 3 over the previous year's climber - and should have made it back into the top 100 in the ATP world rankings. The 29-year-old is currently ranked 98th in the live ranking.
But why exactly maple syrup? "I love maple syrup, I'm a big maple syrup fan," said Pospisil in Rotterdam. He hadn't paid much attention to the whole thing in the past week, "but then I realized that it was probably a funny thing - because I'm Canadian."
What is maple syrup?
Around 85 percent of the maple syrup produced worldwide comes from Canada, mostly from Québec. Maple syrup is made from the juice of the sugar maple. "I always travel with it, eat it for breakfast," said Pospisil, the Canadian. "I read online that it's good for endurance sports. I thought I would give it a try."
In fact, maple syrup as a natural product contains many minerals - 100 ml (calorific value: approx. 345 calories) contain approx. 60 g sucrose, 90 mg calcium, 185 mg potassium, 25 mg magnesium and 2 mg iron. It is also a good source of vitamin B. "I love it - and I think I'll keep trying it for a while," said Pospisil.
So Pospisil seems to have found its recipe for success. In 2014 he was number 25 in the world, most recently he had dropped out of the top 100 due to injury. And is now on the ascending branch again. On Thursday evening in the round of 16 in Rotterdam it's against Filip Krajinovic - probably again with maple syrup in his pocket.