Dzumhur emotionally reflects on his illness: "I really thought it was the end of my career"

Arthur Millot

le 29/04/2025 à 13h55

1 min to read

Dzumhur Madrid

Damir Dzumhur fell in the third round of the Madrid Masters 1000 to Arnaldi (6-3, 6-4). Ranked 68th in the world, he had previously defeated Bellucci and Baez in the first and second rounds.

In a lengthy interview with the specialized website Clay, the Bosnian opened up about the acute pancreatitis he suffered in 2022—a difficult period that could have been fatal for him:

"I lost eleven kilos in just a few days. It was very sudden, and everything happened very quickly. I was at Roland Garros in 2022, playing Fernando Verdasco in the qualifiers. Shortly after the match, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, which kept getting worse.

At some point, I realized something was wrong because it wasn’t normal pain—it was very intense and unusual. After consulting with the on-site doctor, they sent me to a hospital in Paris. I was lucky they took me in right away because I had pancreatic inflammation, a very serious condition.

The doctor who examined me told me I was fortunate to be young and in good shape, as someone older or weaker could have easily died from that kind of inflammation. It was a tough time, but I recovered relatively quickly. I returned to the tennis court just four months after the incident.

I’m so happy to be able to live a normal life and play tennis again because, at that moment, I really thought it was the end of my career."