After his victory at the French Open, Alexander Zverev participated in the 2026 Terra Wortmann Open held in Halle, Germany. He advanced to the semifinals but was ultimately defeated by American tennis player Taylor Fritz in a three-set match.
This defeat was Zverev’s 10th against Fritz. After the match, the Roland Garros champion, who manages diabetes, revealed he faced challenges due to a malfunctioning sensor that provided incorrect blood sugar readings. These faulty readings prompted him to consume glucose drinks and intake between 300 and 350 grams of sugar, which made him feel unwell.
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“This has never happened to me before. The glucose sensor I use gave me an incorrect sugar reading,” Zverev said. “I’ve had to take between 300 and 350 grams of sugar. I felt horrible. I’ve been using this sensor since 2017 and I’ve never seen such a big error. It was giving me very high values, when in reality they were very low. If anyone reviews the match, they’ll see that I was drinking one glucose drink after another.”
Despite his explanation, Zverev’s comments were not well-received by fans. One fan pointed out his seventh consecutive loss to Fritz, criticizing Zverev’s remarks as demonstrating ‘worst sportsmanship.’
Another fan accused him of making excuses, stating:
“He has it in for grandson Fritz; something always happens to him when he faces him.”
A different fan acknowledged the unfortunate incident but criticized the German player for consistently making excuses after his losses.
“I’m not saying he’s lying, surely things are as he says. But what is certain is that you’re never going to see him lose in a normal way and congratulate the rival for being better. Incredibly, for every match he loses, he always has an excuse.”
Additional reactions included:
“Today there was no way to blame the track, the temperature, the wind, the crowd. The diabetes sensor got the blame kkkk,” a fan wrote.
Alexander Zverev believes he could have outplayed Taylor Fritz
Despite losing to Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev felt he could have triumphed had circumstances been different. He served 11 aces compared to Fritz’s 19, and the American won 85% of points on his first serve, slightly edging Zverev’s 83%. While Zverev acknowledged Fritz had outplayed him in previous encounters, he was confident about his performance this time, though things did not go as planned.
“The disappointment is there because I feel like my tennis was there, but for other reasons I couldn’t show it. The last few times I played against Taylor he was a better player than me, but today I felt like my level was there. I just wasn’t physically able to demonstrate it on the court.” (via puntodebreak.com}
Fritz’s victories over Zverev have been consistent, including wins at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, 2024 US Open, 2024 Laver Cup, 2024 Nitto ATP Finals, 2025 BOSS Open, 2025 Laver Cup, and the 2026 Terra Wortmann Open.
Edited by Janhavi Shinde
