Atp Monza Open 25: the champions at the table. Pasta and chicken breast dominate, but there are also vegans

Monza, 9 April 2025 – A few minutes for a healthy meal and then back to training and matches. Nourish yourself to perform, never weighed down: even the diet is carefully calibrated by tennis players competing at the ATP Challenger Atkinsons Monza Open 25. Antonio Di Dio knows this well, owner of the Tennis club restaurant hosting the event.

"The athletes start arriving between 11 and 11.30:15.30 and until XNUMX:XNUMX - he says -, as soon as they have a break between training and matches. They have a very basic diet, made up of plain pasta, pasta with tomato sauce or ragù, chicken breast, or salads and bresaola. In recent years many have become vegan or vegetarian. But the winning combo remains pasta and chicken breast. We bought hundreds of kilos of pasta to meet the needs of approximately 80 athletes every day, with as many coaches”.

There is no time to get acquainted with the tennis players at lunch. The pace is frenetic. The athletes arrive, order and they give themselves about half an hour for lunch. For this reason they ask to be served quickly. In the kitchen a staff of four chefs and two washers work continuously, while 7 waiters are available to the athletes who have a private room reserved for them. The restaurant’s busiest day so far was last Sunday, when the tennis players were joined by at least 2.500 of the 4.000 fans who came to watch the matches.

For the public, sandwiches and piadinas are the most popular, cutlets, trofiette with clams and then water and soft drinks. At the sponsors' stands they offer assistance, on a rotation basis,about 80 students from the Olivetti hotel management institute in Monza, reception section and bar room. Some of them, at peak times, are asked to lend a hand with table service, a way to experience first-hand the management of daily life, which also requires flexibility to satisfy customers.

By mid-morning, many people are approaching the Rovagnati's stand, the brand of Brianza DOC cured meats. Yesterday, master delicatessen owner Marco Guzzi welcomed them: “We cut 15 to 18 kilos of Gran Biscotto every day”. The delicatessen owner indulges in explanations of consistency and processing. “I hold courses in hotel schools and explain to young aspiring delicatessen owners the production techniques, raw materials and processing of hams and cheeses; in Italy we have an unbeatable quantity, all of excellent quality”.

 Cristina Bertolini