Zverev opens up on struggles with diabetes: "In school I was bullied a little bit for it"

Alexander Zverev was rumoured to suffer from diabetes for a long time but it wasn't until recently that he came clean and admitted that he was indeed a diabetic.

It's something that has been part of his life for a very long time and it'll never go away. The reason to come clean was to inspire others with the condition as well as to use his platform as an athlete to raise awareness about it. During a recent talk with the ATP, Zverev opened up about his reasons to make it public knowledge:

"It's to help kids and adults and people, all the world over the world. Diabetes. I think that is an illness that is not talked about a lot because I think in countries like Germany, like the us, like other rich countries, I would say you can live with it quite a normal life."

He expanded:

"But that is, that is not always the case. Not everywhere else in the world because a lot of places, like a lot of places in Africa, a lot of places in, in Asia, as. Some places South America the medicine is not always there because the, the country is not as well run as probably maybe Germany or the US or Britain or France or, you know, those kind of countries."

Zverev continued:

"And the the second part is also I think, you know, when you get this illness at a young age, you get a lot of doubt in you and people give you a lot of doubt because I’ve always had doctors telling me, with an illness like that you will never be a professional athlete, especially not in a physical sport like tennis and I want to make sure that the message is out there that you really can and that you should never put limits on yourself just because you have an illness like that."

Finally he admitted:

"Oh, it feels amazing. It feels like you know, a stone coming off my shoulders in a way... because in school I was maybe bullied a little bit for it."