Pospisil explains benefits of mushrooms

This year was a milestone one for Vasek Pospisil. He reached two ATP finals, boosted his ranking back inside of the Top 70, launched the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) and co-founded a mushroom supplement company.

"It's not the magic mushroom," Pospisil said on a recent episode of the TENNIS.com Podcast. "A lot of people have asked me that."

You can be excused for asking the question since the supplement brand is named Hekate.

"Hekate is actually the Greek goddess of magic, so it's not magic mushrooms, but they're magical right?" Pospisil says.

The benefits are both mental and physical, aiding with inflammation, stress, immunity, focus and endurance.

"So functional mushrooms are superfoods," the 30-year-old says. "Eleven of the Top 50 superfoods in the world are actually functional mushrooms," adding that four of those 11 are in Hekate's cocoa blend powder.

The company launched earlier this year with Pospisil as director and co-founder alongside his two friends Justin Kates and Russell Henderson. It started long before COVID-19 left Pospisil, and everyone else, with more time on their hands, but it really picked up speed during the pandemic.

Pospisil with Hekate co-founders Henderson (left) and Kates. (@Vasek.Pospisil Instagram)

When the 2014 Wimbledon doubles champion underwent back surgery in early 2019, his nutritionist suggested that he take mushroom supplements.

"It was just a little bit ironic that I'd just started taking mushroom supplements and I was really passionate about it and really into it and really believed it," Pospisil says. "It's been a part of my morning routine ever since I was recovering from surgery."

After missing the first half of 2019, the Canadian bounced back with an upset of Karen Khachanov at the US Open, a fourth-round appearance in Shanghai, two ATP Challenger titles and a historic run to the Davis Cup final.

In 2020, he reached his first ATP final in six years, in Montpellier, and though he got some attention for his maple syrup chugging, he was in the throes of building the functional mushroom company. By the time the US Open came around, he was touting Hekate's first product.

"I'm very involved in all the major important calls and early on during COVID before tennis started up I was day-to-day doing everything with the two co-founders," Pospisil says. "Now that we've kind of established ourselves a bit, I'm obviously not on the operations side; I take care more of raising money, the vision. We're all kind of wearing a lot of hats right now as it's early."

Once the tour resumed, the former world No. 25 turned his attention back to the tournament calendar and kept climbing back up the ranks. He strung together an impressive fourth-round run at the US Open and then capped his season off by finishing runner-up in Sofia.

Hekate had its soft launch early this year, releasing Star Power Adaptogenic Cocoa with reishi, lion's mane, chaga and cordyceps mushrooms. The cocoa powder masks the bitterness of the mushrooms and it can be mixed into drinks like smoothies and coffee or into oatmeal.

While Pospisil has big goals on court in the new year, Hekate also has plans for a big launch in early 2021 with more products coming including a matcha powder.

"To be completely honest, I've just felt like it's really helped my recovery more than anything," Pospisil says. "I'm less sore after my matches and it's super cool to actually feel the benefits of a supplement, so I'm stoked."

Check out Pospisil's episode of the TENNIS.com Podcast:

Subscribe: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tennis-com-podcast/id339875623 | https://open.spotify.com/show/2ihq5SJ8N72EsloO9XunbW