Wimbledon arrives on Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis Club this week, for the 80th edition since the late-great Fred Perry’s second tournament victory back in 1935. That proved to be just one of eight Grand Slam titles he achieved over the years and he did so with a completely self-imposed training regime.
Fast forward to today’s superstars and gone are the days of simply training when you want. Current world number one Novak Djokovic – who is also considered to be the early tournament favourite – undergoes a vigorous 3 hour regime per day that includes yoga, weight training, resistance training, hitting sessions and two massages! The Serb also stands at a total of eight Grand Slam titles throughout his career to date, meaning that unless he can overtake Perry before retirement (which is extremely likely, given Djokovic’s talent) it is unclear whose regime worked best!
Another start that is likely to be in the mix is Andy Murray. Murray only completes just 1-2 hours of training per day, but that doesn’t prevent him from consuming as many as 6,000 calories a day in order to stay in peak condition for Grand Slam events.
Those calories come in the form of sushi for the most part, although it might be worth straying to the diet of former great Bjorn Borg should he fail to secure success at this year’s event. Instead of fish, Borg often gorged on steak and potatoes in the run up to major tournaments and he fared better than both Djokovic and Perry, winning 11 Grand Slams and 64 career titles in total.
Of course, if all else fails then the solution for success could be coffee. It certainly worked for Andre Agassi, who consumed gallons of the stuff on his way to 60 career titles – eight of them coming in Grand Slam events.
