Dominic Thiem was well on his way to becoming number 1 in the tennis world before injury and motivation problems completely derailed him. He now ends his career with his head held high, but as a great unfinished man.
Dominic Thiem falls to the ground behind the baseline of the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York and remains lying for seconds on the hard court floor of the largest tennis stadium in the world. A moment earlier, a backhand from his good friend and final opponent Alexander Zverev sailed out of bounds.
The Austrian enjoys the moment almost in silence. Due to the corona pandemic, spectators are not in the stadium to witness Thiem’s greatest career success in 2020 – winning his first Grand Slam title at the US Open.
“It had to be that way. Like my entire career. Ups and downs, just drama,” he said just a few minutes after the battle of nerves that lasted five sentences – without realizing how aptly he was talking about what was to follow in the future.
Dominic Thiem hasn’t been the same for a long time
Because after Thiem had reached his peak, a downward slide followed, which drove Thiem to the point of announcing his retirement – which he officially completed on Tuesday with his last match against the Italian Luciano Darderi at the home tournament in Vienna.
Thiem lost his first round match against number 42 in the world 6:7 (6:8), 2:6. It was a final chord that unfortunately seemed as consistent as the circumstances of the big win against Zverev four years earlier.
The Dominic Thiem of 2024 was miles away from his old competitiveness. “This is a different galaxy than how I used to play,” he said himself in April at the BMW Open in Munich. Even after the match against Darderi, he said openly: “My basic level has simply fallen in recent years.”
Just a few years ago it looked as if Thiem’s career was developing in a completely different direction: he was considered the legitimate successor to the throne of clay court king Rafael Nadal. Thiem lost to Nadal four times at the French Open, including twice in the final, in 2018 and 2019. Thiem was also not far from his big goal of becoming the second Austrian after Thomas Muster to become number 1 in the world rankings.
But now that the Spaniard has also announced the end of his long farewell tour and the road to the title in Roland Garros is expected to soon become a little less rocky, others are benefiting and not the former “clay court prince”, who was last in the ATP rankings 318 had slipped.
But what happened that threw Thiem off track?
After the US Open victory, things are going well at the beginning
Contrary to what many believe, the crash did not begin immediately after the triumph in New York. In the weeks that followed, the major champion continued to be in strong form, including making it to the final of the ATP Finals.
But the break came in the 2021 season: the 17-time ATP title holder struggled with himself a few months after fulfilling his self-proclaimed lifelong dream. A hole in motivation opened up and Thiem fell into it.
To make matters worse, the psychological challenges were compounded by a physical setback in June 2021, which the 31-year-old struggled with until the end. In the first round of the tournament in Mallorca he suffered a joint injury on his right batting hand.
After a forced break of around nine months, the comeback followed in March 2022, but it was slow. “Due to the long break and the protective position of the wrist, some wrong things crept into my forehand,” explained Thiem.
Few bright spots, many doubts
He sparked a small glimmer of hope by reaching the final of the 250cc event in his Austrian home of Kitzbühel in 2023 – but disillusionment quickly followed. Reaching the final remained an exception.
Even on the second-class Challenger Tour he was unable to gain self-confidence, suffering defeats against lesser-known names such as his compatriot Lukas Neumayer and Daniel Michalski.
Attempts to gain new impetus through a change of coach and thus return to the road to success also came to nothing. Thiem separated from his ex-coach Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh at the beginning of the year after the first-round defeat at the Australian Open – which turned out to be his last major tournament. “I see this as my last chance,” he explained at the time. Soon afterwards it became clear: the coaching castling had also come to nothing.
End of career after the tennis season
One statistic in particular shows how great the potential was that Thiem could have achieved much more: Along with Andy Murray, Thiem was the only player who defeated each of the “Big Three” – Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer – at least five times .
Overall, only Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin del Potro (17 each) and Murray (30) managed this more often, although they also had the pleasure – or the pain – of meeting the Big Three more often.
While a new elite is now emerging with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Thiem – ironically before Nadal – is a particularly unfortunate representative of the generation.
