You can call it a bromance, but it was really Novak Djokovic’s love of a plant-based diet and his respect for Juice Press.

Hi, I am Michael Karsch, CEO of Juice Press. My wife Erica and I have had quite a journey building Juice Press into our vision for plant-based beverages, food, and general nutrition.

And our interaction with Novak is up there as one of our favorites. The story starts when we decide to become one of the sponsors of the US Open tennis tournament. It was a big financial commitment for us, but we felt that a lot of our target demographic would be attending the matches.

We were also exposed to the players in two ways. One, we have a logo on the beverage cooler on the Main Court of Arthur Ashe Stadium. Two, we had a booth selling smoothies and juices in the players' cafeteria.

During the tournament, the executives running the US Open reached out to convey that Novak had been enjoying our products, and perhaps we could meet him after the tournament was over—obviously, we said, of course.

We met Djokovic at his hotel for breakfast post-tournament, and we found him to be incredibly “present” and very smart. He asked a lot of questions about how we produced our product, and he was particularly interested in learning what type of machines we used to press our produce into organic juice and the secret process behind our famous “cold oatmeal.”

Of course, we were curious as to how he learned about us and why he asked to meet us. He said that his NY-based friends had told him about Juice Press and had gone to the store pretty much every day before the tournament started. He went on to say that he didn’t realize that we were a big company until one match, when he looked over and saw our advertisement on the court!! And he thought, I didn’t realize how big Juice Press is; I should meet up with them.

I guess when you are the best player in the world, you have the capacity to play at an elite level and also think about other things! But then again, he told me it was an early round in the tournament, so he's probably just that much better!

Anyway, it meant the world to us that the best tennis player in the world 🌎, who perhaps is most associated with plant-based nutrition, thought so highly of us. As entrepreneurs, there are highs and lows, and his validation was definitely a memorable high.

Michael and Erica Karsch