Crepes? Croissants? Wine? Players tempted during French Open

As a professional athlete who is judicious about what she eats and drinks, Bethanie Mattek-Sands knows all too well how impossible it is to avoid the sweet aroma emanating from a stand selling waffles with a chocolate-hazelnut spread just outside the French Open’s main stadium.

“We would walk by that every day,” the 32-year-old American said last week at Roland Garros, recalling her run to the 2015 women’s doubles title. “We could even smell it from one of the match courts.”

There is nearly constant gastronomic temptation for tennis players at the annual Grand Slam tournament held in one of the world’s capitals of cuisine. Crepes and croissants. Baguettes and pates. Steaks and french fries. The rich sauces. The chocolate. The macaroons. The wine. And on and on and on.

“The French cheese and foie gras and everything they have—it is extremely caloric,” said Sergiy Stakhovsky, a 31-year- old from Ukraine best known for his upset of Roger Federer in the second round of Wimbledon four years ago.

“But as you can see,” he joked, lifting his shirt to reveal a flat stomach, “it doesn’t stay. It just goes somewhere. I don’t know where.”

Some players say they resist the carbs, the desserts, the alcohol. Others simply give in. Others hold out until they’re done competing.

“I’ve gotten better at the ‘everything in moderation’ thing. But I’m in my 20s, I travel, I work out a lot. So I’m like, ‘You know what? I love food,’” said Madison Brengle, a 27-year-old American who reached the second round at the French Open. “I feel like I’d rather work out more and really enjoy the food. The places we get to go to around the world, there’s amazing food. Got to try it.”

Brengle’s top treat in Paris? Pistachio macaroons.

For two weeks two years ago, Mattek Sands said, she thought about those waffles. Then, on the day that she and Czech partner Lucie Safarova won the championship, all bets were off.

“Right after the final, I was like, ‘We are going to the waffles!’ I didn’t want anything else,” Mattek-Sands recalled with a hearty laugh. “So I had the trophy in one arm and was just eating a Nutella waffle from the other. I was still in my match gear.”

And, according to her husband, Justin Sands, that long-awaited waffle was washed down with Champagne sipped from the doubles trophy.

Petra Martic, a Croatian ranked 290th, said she celebrated each victory with a glass of French wine as she made it all the way from qualifying to the fourth round of the main draw.

So when she eventually lost, a reporter wondered whether the routine would change that night. ”Still a great tournament, you know,” Martic responded. “You can always find reason for red wine.”