This is a translated excerpt from a German interview with Alexander Zverev in Tennismagazin.de!
Alexander Zverev: “Didn’t want an excuse in sport”
(FRANZISKA BRÜLLS)
Alexander Zverev has been living with type 1 diabetes since he was four years old. For him, it has always been “normality,” but he only made his illness public just under two years ago. tennis MAGAZIN met the 26-year-old for an interview at the Tannenhof Resort as part of an event organized by his foundation. Zverev talks about his everyday life with diabetes, why he kept the diagnosis secret for so long, and how he wants to help with his foundation.
You were four years old when you were diagnosed with diabetes. How did you or your family notice?
I can’t remember because I was too young. I only know from stories from my family that I was sick and had a serious virus. Then I had to get vaccinated, like every normal child has to get vaccinated. I was still sick. But they vaccinated me anyway, which was wrong in this case. It was a reaction of my body that I got diabetes after the vaccination. I was four years old at the time. How did they notice? I didn’t eat for days, just drank. My sugar was always incredibly high. But we didn’t know that. At some point my parents took me to the doctor. There they found out that I had diabetes.
More in German… Tennismagazin.de
Alexander “Sascha” Zverev is a German professional tennis player. His career highlights include a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and titles at the 2018 and 2021 ATP Finals. Zverev has won 22 ATP Tour titles in singles and two in doubles. Notably, he is the youngest player to win two consecutive Masters 1000 titles on different surfaces since 1990, and the first player born in the 1990s to achieve this feat12.