How Patrick Zahraj managed diabetes: ‘There’s always a way’ | ATP Tour

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How Patrick Zahraj manages diabetes: ‘There’s always a way’

The 26-year-old German writes a first-person account to help fans understand the challenges that come with playing professional tennis as a diabetic.

January 04, 2026

I was nine years old when my life changed forever.

I had an infection for a few weeks when I started drinking a lot of water, which was my body’s attempt to get rid of the excess sugar in my blood. I drank 10 to 12 liters a day so, logically, I went to the bathroom every half hour to flush it out.

My parents thought I was just passing water, and that it was okay to deal with a virus. But my symptoms got worse. I was playing in a tournament one day in March 2009 and I couldn’t finish the game. When I got home that night, I threw up in front of our front door. I got into bed and took a deep breath, not knowing exactly what was going on. A week later, I woke up in the hospital.

Unknowingly, my body has been attacking the pancreas and killing the cells. I will be awake and alert for 10 seconds and fall asleep again for an hour. That happened in the morning and I didn’t know what was going on.

When I finally woke up, I had a realization: I was starving. I had never been so hungry in my life. Next to me was a newborn baby with his mother and the whole family. They had the most amazing food ever: Unbelievable sandwiches, jellies, breads and the best we have in Germany. I remember just asking the nurse, ‘Hey, can I have it?’ He was like, ‘No, your blood sugar is still high. You have to wait a few more days’.

It was the first time I heard the word blood sugar. Soon after, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I will be in the hospital for about a month and have been on a journey to improve my health with this disease since then.

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Patrick Zahraj is a member of the Germany Team in the United Cup.” style=”width:100%;” src=”

This week I’m at the United Cup for Team Germany, who also has type 1 diabetes: Alexander Zverev.

Sascha has been a great inspiration to me. He is two years old and my communication with him when I was young was very important, especially for my parents, who had a few phone calls with his parents. Sascha was diagnosed with diabetes earlier than I was and already had the experience to show that it is possible to continue chasing dreams despite living with this disease.

Their family was able to explain to us that it was possible with some tricks here and there. That inspired me to pursue the path of becoming a professional tennis player and just realized it was possible. It was liberating for a young athlete, as I was at the time.

When Sascha went public with it in 2022, launching the Alexander Zverev Foundation, it was such a big deal in the Type 1 community. So much work can be done and we can inspire people and share our knowledge to show the world what is possible. For children who are diagnosed, hopefully we can offer hope.

Although I live with this, I am still one of the Top 250 players in the world. My father, Radek, was a champion who reached World No.

While I was in the hospital for a month, my father coached several professionals, including four-time ATP Tour title holder Andre Begemann. They came to visit me in the hospital, and we built a tennis net out of big Lego blocks. It was cool to see us all get together and just try to pass the time with tennis at the hospital, because there was a lot of free time without learning about the disease.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes, the initial discussions with my doctors did not go well for my tennis prospects. They were actually not very supportive of playing tennis in general. Medical experts say there is a high risk of low blood sugar among other things.

Some doctors could not help us and others gave us hope that we will be able to compete. It was a lot of trial and error. A lot goes into being a professional tennis player and even more to do all that while thinking about things like glucose intake, figuring out which carbohydrates work best and fastest for me and worrying about my blood sugar.

I went on to play college tennis at UCLA, where I was a two-time All-Pac 12 honoree and a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete. From there, I started playing professional tennis.

I have an insulin pump with two attachment points behind the gluteus maximus. I have a sensor in my tricep that I need to replace every 10 days. I change injection sites every two days and insulin cartridges every four to five days.

While I focus on my game and technique, I also have to consider my blood sugar monitoring and levels. If the connection between my sensor and my phone doesn’t work, or there’s a technical error when I’m in court, that’s a problem. All of a sudden you get to the bench and realize, ‘Dang, I’m offline so I don’t know what my sugar is doing right now’. I don’t know what the trend is and that might affect me.

Patrick Zahraj shows some of the things he uses as a type 1 diabetic.” style=”width:100%;” src=”

I have a glucometer as a backup so I can check my levels manually and make decisions about what to eat and when. There is always an extra layer.

We are outside the court so we want to manage our bodies to perform at their best, but if our sugar is already high and we are in a stage of the game like the second break when you feel you need more energy, you cannot eat at that time because your blood sugar is already high. You want to be at your best, but you also have to manage your diabetes. It is a twisting act.

Last year I was against Kyle Edmund at the ATP Challenger event on grass in Nottingham. With my levels, I have manually injected myself many times to try to balance my numbers and nothing has worked. I ended up with a lot of money and I just stumbled and appeared in court. I almost passed out and was given medical help to leave the court.

I quit the game and the next morning I was on a plane to Basel, where my father picked me up to drive me three hours to Gstaad. I went from dealing with a diabetic episode on slippery grass to competing on clay at the height of an ATP Tour event, where I would compete in my first tour-level main draw.

Living with diabetes requires a lot of attention, but after 17 years with it, it becomes normal. I have learned a lot over the years and I am glad that I went through the whole process to get to the point where I am now, where I feel completely free from this disease.

There is also good. Diabetes has helped me build incredible discipline from a young age. When I was nine I was counting all my insulin shots by myself at school, which made me really independent. Besides, I would need a babysitter all the time. Then there is the mental aspect of accepting and acting on the past quickly to find solutions. Things don’t always go our way. You may not know your schedule, or you may have to deal with flight delays or jet lag. Many things can affect your blood sugar – it’s like fighting the waves, trying to slow them down as much as you can. Life will never be a straight line.

But I want people with diabetes who read this to know that there is always a way. It may be different for everyone. I have different problems than Sascha has physically, for example. But what I have found over the years with this disease is that there is always a way, as long as you are willing to work hard and reach out to people to learn. You can also skip that course and live, but it’s mostly a Type 1 community.

The more we share together, the more we can learn and expand our diseases together to live freely without limitations.

– As told by Andrew Eichenholz

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