Tennis: Last act of Thiem’s ​​great career

Like Thomas Muster, Thiem sparked a tennis euphoria in Austria. The Lower Austrian was able to record a total of 17 tournaments, including home victories in Kitzbühel and Vienna. In September 2022, at the US Open in New York, Thiem became only the second Austrian after Thomas Muster to be included in the winners’ list of a Grand Slam tournament.

In addition to Muster, with 44 titles including a French Open victory and number one in the world, the most successful domestic tennis player of all time, Thiem entered the history books as the great of local sport. In 2020 he was also named “Austria’s Athlete of the Year”. Thiem remained in the top ten for almost five and a half years and was in third place for almost a year. June 22, 2021 was a turning point: a serious wrist injury threw the Lower Austrian off track. At the age of 31 it’s over.

In addition to the many beautiful moments for tennis fans, what remains is a bitter aftertaste because of the end – especially because of the great potential of the Lower Austrian, whose one-handed backhand was considered a trademark. Thiem also drove the all-time greats Roger Federer (record: 5:2 wins), Rafael Nadal (6:10) and Novak Djokovic (5:7) to despair. Along with Andy Murray, Thiem is the only player who has had five wins against the “Big Three”.

US Open title as a big highlight

Four years ago it still looked as if Thiem could permanently break into the select circle. With the five-set win over Zverev after being 0-2 sets down in the final of the US Open, he achieved his big goal. And not, as everyone expected, in Roland Garros, where he had previously been in the final twice and was considered the “crown prince” of clay court king Rafael Nadal, but in Flushing Meadows – with the Arthur Ashe Stadium on the biggest stage and still in the middle in front of empty stands during the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the US Open title was not the liberation he had hoped for. According to his own statement, the fire had temporarily gone out: “There are players who are immediately fired up to win the next Grand Slam title. It wasn’t like that for me, I’m a different guy. It took me a while to accept that,” Thiem later said looking back. At the end of 2020, he still caused a sensation at the ATP Finals of the best eight players of the year with victories over Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, among others, and only narrowly lost in the final.

Steady decline since 2021

But things hadn’t gone as planned in 2021 even before the fatal injury. A semi-final in Madrid was outstanding. In Melbourne he was eliminated in the round of 16 as last year’s finalist, and at the French Open he lost in the first round. The big physical setback followed on Mallorca. Keyword: wrist. Only after 280 days did Thiem return to a Challenger in Marbella in March 2022. A series of seven defeats started there, followed by a fall back to world ranking position 352 (June 13, 2022). Thiem reached the semi-finals in Gstaad, Gijon and Antwerp. He made it to number 100 for one week that year.

Reaching the Kitzbühel final in 2023 was the highlight. At the end of the year, Thiem thought out loud about resigning for the first time. The goal for 2024 was top 50, but this soon became unattainable. The old injury reported at the end of March. “This strange feeling in the wrist has come back, coupled with slight pain,” said Thiem. The Lower Austrian retreated further and further into his family environment. Father Wolfgang became his trainer again, his younger brother Moritz his manager. But the path to the sports pension was unstoppable.

The 31-year-old can still look back on his career with satisfaction. Thiem lived up to all the early praise as a teenager. “The guy never once asked me when training was over,” his long-time coach Günter Bresnik once said. This attitude, but also the great financial and time commitment of the entire Thiem family, were important building blocks for success. The Swiss superstar Federer called the Austrian a “superstar” at the French Open 2019. This is how Thiem will be remembered in Austria when he says his final goodbyes in the town hall. There, where his career really began in 2011 with a victory over Vorreiter Muster.