--- title: Novak Djokovic Ate Grass to Celebrate His Wimbledon Win description: Some athletes celebrate a major victory by drinking champagne. Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, celebrates by eating grass. canonical: https://time.com/5626559/novak-djokovic-eating-grass/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-15T16:21:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:31.222Z og:title: Novak Djokovic Ate Grass to Celebrate His Wimbledon Win og:description: Because champions need fuel og:url: https://time.com/5626559/novak-djokovic-eating-grass/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5c84574f931c99f/6989fff4929fad2859bf499b/novakwimbledon2019grass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2790 og:image:height: 1569 og:image:alt: Wimbledon 2019 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Novak Djokovic Ate Grass to Celebrate His Wimbledon Win twitter:description: Because champions need fuel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5c84574f931c99f/6989fff4929fad2859bf499b/novakwimbledon2019grass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Resourceful Novak Djokovic Snacks on Grass to Celebrate His Wimbledon Win Because Champions Need Fuel > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 15, 2019 4:21 PM UTC  Grand Slam/ATP Tour, Wimbledon, Individual, Men, Final, Djokovic (Serbia) - Federer (Switzerland). Novak Djokovic squats on the grass after the match. Photo: Frank Molter/dpa (Photo by Frank Molter/picture alliance via Getty Images) Grand Slam/ATP Tour, Wimbledon, Individual, Men, Final, Djokovic (Serbia) - Federer (Switzerland). Novak Djokovic squats on the grass after the match. Photo: Frank Molter/dpa (Photo by Frank Molter/picture alliance via Getty Images) picture alliance& via Getty Image  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 15, 2019 4:21 PM UTC Some athletes celebrate a major victory by [drinking champagne](https://time.com/5621965/alex-morgan-locker-room-celebration/). [Novak Djokovic](https://time.com/5626201/novak-djokovic-wins-wimbledon/), on the other hand, celebrates by eating grass. After Djokovic defeated [Roger Federer](https://time.com/money/5391450/roger-federer-total-prize-money-earned/) in an unprecedented fifth-set tiebreaker to win Wimbledon 2019 on Sunday, the tennis superstar leaned down and plucked a few strands of grass out of the court before popping them in his mouth. Considering Djokovic has won [Wimbledon](https://time.com/5616089/royals-at-wimbledon/) five times in the past 8 years, paying tribute to the grass court that has played a crucial role in nearly half of his 16 Grand Slam victories seems like the right move. Of course, this isn’t the first time that Djokovic has snacked on the Wimbledon court. He’s been doing it since he first won the tournament in 2011. “It’s a little tradition obviously,” he told the [BBC](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/07/why-does-novak-djokovic-eat-the-wimbledon-grass) in 2018\. “As a kid I was dreaming of winning Wimbledon, so, like every child, you dream of doing something crazy when you actually achieve it — if you achieve it — and that was one of the things.” Watch the video below. > [](https://twitter.com/TonyLiebert/status/1150469253587439617) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5626559/novak-djokovic-eating-grass/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5626559/novak-djokovic-eating-grass/"},"headline":"Resourceful Novak Djokovic Snacks on Grass to Celebrate His Wimbledon Win Because Champions Need Fuel","datePublished":"2019-07-15T16:21:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:31.222Z","description":"\"It's a little tradition obviously\"","url":"https://time.com/5626559/novak-djokovic-eating-grass/","keywords":["Newsfeed","tennis","Novak Djokovic","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5c84574f931c99f/6989fff4929fad2859bf499b/novakwimbledon2019grass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5c84574f931c99f/6989fff4929fad2859bf499b/novakwimbledon2019grass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wimbledon 2019","caption":"Novak at Wimbledon 2019","creditText":"picture alliance& via Getty Image","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5626559/novak-djokovic-eating-grass/","name":"Resourceful Novak Djokovic Snacks on Grass to Celebrate His Wimbledon Win Because Champions Need Fuel"}}]}] ```