The questions were raised by footage from the round of 16 duel with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, in which the 26-year-old Zverev injected himself in his right thigh on the bench during a break between sets. After the match, he complained that it was not clearly established how he could proceed with regard to his illness.
“Last I was told it counted as a bathroom break. So I said yes, but I might have to leave the pitch four or five times,” he said in an interview with Eurosport after progressing to the quarter-finals. “But I only get two bathroom breaks. This means that I will not be allowed to do something that is necessary for my life,” he added.
He was originally told that injecting insulin in public looked weird, like he was doping. “I have been diabetic since I was three and a half years old. If I don’t inject insulin, my life is in danger,” he emphasized.
In one of the earlier rounds of the tournament, the supervisor, who did not know about his illness, insisted on calling a doctor. Also in the duel with Dimitrov, Zverev had to argue with the referee about the administration of insulin. “I told him, ‘You decide what you want from me, but don’t keep sending me back and forth.’ It should be clearly stated what I have to do,” he stated.
Zverev spoke openly about his illness in August 2022. Doctors diagnosed him with type 1 diabetes as early as childhood. For example, the Czech skeleton athlete Anna Fernstädtová, who developed diabetes shortly before the Olympic Games in 2022, faces the same problems.