Diet? Not at all, even sausages were served

15th August 2020

During Prague Open 2020, players pass by during matches, on courts during their practices, or in the gym. However, there is only one place where you can see all of them together, although they keep social distance. The place we talk about is a club restaurant in the TK Sparta Praha complex with a stunning terrace view on a centre court.

It is Jan Trojan and his fellow team who ensure that players and organisers do not starve. “At the beginning of the tournament, when there were lots of people, we cooked around 150 meals just for the players and their crew. Then we also have organisers, security team, drivers, umpires, ball guys, etc. So when you count it all together, we serve around 350 meals a day,” said Jan Trojan who has been the restaurant manager in the club since May. The limitations and restrictions, therefore, did not scare him. "We were prepared enough from the beginning as we used to work in the face masks and gloves during the pandemic , so it wasn't anything new for us and we knew what we were doing. However, we had to make a couple of seating changes. Tables are placed at least 2 meters apart with seats for only 2 people. Nevertheless, everyone has respected them and we haven't had a single complaint," added Trojan. The struggle was more staff wise as he was lacking staff so he even had to hire his wife, friends, family members and other co-workers. There are now 18 members of the restaurant staff who usually start working between 5 am and 6 am and finishes around 9 pm. They also had to undertake COVID-19 tests.

And what do the players eat during the tournament? “We prepare menu á la carte so we have 3 types of meal a day, 2 soups and fresh salad bowls. We made sure that the meals are nutritious, light but varied. The players usually order chicken breasts with rice or pasta, they also eat lots of fruits and vegetables but some of the players would order just a bowl of plain rice. They even order coffee, without milk and sugar, so the way it should be drunk," described Trojan. And what about Czech cuisine? Some of the coaches were not scared to try famous Czech beer. Numerous of WTA representatives wished to eat Czech specialties such as fried cheese.

And then, there are some players who enjoy meals more than the others. For example, Jasmine Paolini from Italy was craving a BBQ when she was passing by the outside grill with her coach so they ended up eating sausages with mustard, ketchup, and fries. "They took it outside so everyone who walked past them was smiling at them as they didn't quite expect that to see. Another player who also loves food is Tamara Korpatsch from Germany when she ordered 5 meals after her match as she was completely exhausted. She was sitting there for ages so we were just serving her the food meal by meal. It was quite amusing,” remembered Trojan for whom the WTA tournament is the first big event in a manager role.

Prague Open 2020 has had lots of positive reactions not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. A thanks speech of the tournament’s director David Trunda to the players for respecting social distancing and other restrictions, which was published on the tournament’s website, was spotted by various media from abroad. Probably the first person who noticed the speech was an English journalist Hannah Wilks from a well-known online serve Live Tennis. “Prague tournament director with a heartfelt missive of thanks to all the players for respecting safety rules and restrictions,” she tweeted on her Twitter that has more than 10.5k followers and she quoted the director “There is a sense of humility and responsibility in these extraordinary times…I hope we might be also a kind of lighthouse shining modestly in the sea.” She also shared the post on the official Twitter of livetennis.com that has more than 500k followers. The big statement also went overseas where it was noticed by a well-recognised tennis expert and sport journalist Christopher Clarey who has been working for prestigious The New York Times for 25 years. He also reshared this post on his Twitter that has 46.8k followers.

photo: TK SPARTA PRAHA/Pavel Lebeda (sport-pics.cz)