Zverev cried out against the organization of Roland Garros for insulin injections: “If I don’t do it, my life is in danger”

TO Alexander Zverev They are diagnosed type 1 diabetes When I was three years old. He lives with insulin all his life. The German tennis player, who is playing today in the quarter-finals against the Argentinian Tomás Martín Etcheverry Roland Garros, has to navigate every time he competes at a Grand Slam like the French dirt track. “At ATP tournaments it’s much easier, I inject insulin on the court during breaks of matches, of course, but here I’m not allowed on the court, they told me I’m forced to leave the court,” he explained. the one from Hamburg, in his performance before the start of the competition.

“It happened to me in the third round match against Frances Tiafoe, but they told me it would count as a bathroom break. Obviously I replied: ‘Come on people! I only have two bathroom breaks per match, but in a five-set match I sometimes have to give myself four or five injections. I told them that it can’t be like that, that these regulations don’t allow me to enjoy something basic and necessary for my good, for my life,” said the German tennis player, currently ranked 27th in the world, who has become a benchmark for diabetics who dream of progressing in professional sports.

“During the second round I had a crash, so I took the opportunity to go out and give myself an injection. Then a supervisor entered the room who didn’t know about it, that person panicked. “You can’t do that!” he shouted when he saw me.. “A doctor must come to inject him,” he added. I told him that it cannot be because the doctor, if he is not a specialist, cannot help me if he does not have the correct information on how much I have to inject. So I explained it very clearly: “I’ve had diabetes since I was three, I know exactly what to do.” However, he didn’t understand and told me that only a doctor can do it, so we had a heated discussion again,” Zverev revealed.

– Do you think I’m doping?

“I talked to the Roland Garros organization to ask them what I should do, what is the right thing to do. If I have to go off track to do it, then go ahead, it only takes me five seconds. It would be ideal if they let me do it on the track, but They told me this would look weird if they ended up on the field., which doesn’t seem smart to me, because if I don’t, my life is in danger. What do you mean it looks weird? How does it look? How doping? This debate makes no sense,” he added.