As Thiem calls time, we look back on a career of what could've been
It was in Vienna, at home, where after a 7-6(6), 6-2 defeat to Luciano Dardieri, Thiem played his last tournament on the ATP Tour. A tournament he managed to win in 2019, which was then his 16th title on the main Tour.
The 17th - and last - came in August 2020 at the famous US Open played almost behind closed doors, as Covid obliged - it was his first Grand Slam title.
Who would have thought, when he lifted the trophy after coming back from two sets down to defeat Alexander Zverev, that it would not only be the high point of his career but also the last great feat of a player who was promised the world?
Because this victory did not come out of nowhere. Of course, he was expected to win more on clay, as it was at Roland Garros that he had distinguished himself most.
It was there that he reached his first Grand Slam semi-final, then his first final, and from 2016 to 2019, only Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (three times) had managed to stop him on clay. A mark of greatness.
He has therefore been labelled a clay-court player, wrongly so. After all, it was on hard courts that he not only won his only Grand Slam but also his only Masters 1000 (Indian Wells 2019).
What's more, it is also on this surface that he has enjoyed great success against the world's best players, notably the 'Big Three' (Roger Federer in the Indian Wells final, Nadal in the final of the 2020 Australian Open, and Djokovic in the semi-finals of the 2020 ATP Finals, his last career top-10 victory).
A versatile player, but one who paid a heavy price for his famous wrist injury, which - ironically - took place on grass in Mallorca in 2021.
The Austrian had just suffered his first major setback in ages when he lost in the first round at Roland Garros to Pablo Andujar.
In his first match back from that setback, he injured his wrist against Adrian Mannarino. It was the beginning of trouble and the end of his career.
After finishing the 2020 season ranked third in the world and a finalist in the ATP Finals, he fell out of the Top 100 less than two years later. But above all, there were no more major breakthroughs, no more outstanding victories.
It would take him three years to reach his last final - at home in Kitzbuhel in the summer of 2023. With just one victory in the last three years, it was time to call it a day. And that's what he said at the start of the year.
"I've been back for two years since my injury, and I finished at around 100 in 2022 and 98 last year. If I finish the year at 100 again, we'll have to ask ourselves if it's all still worth it."
The above statement was made on the 30th of January. On the 10th of May, he announced his retirement. In the meantime, only two victories in the ATP main draw were enough to make him realise that it wasn't worth it.
At least he can be praised for not insisting for too long. There's nothing worse than seeing former glories struggle to even get into the main draw of a Grand Slam. That's what happened to him this season at Roland Garros, despite his status as a former double finalist, the organisers did not see fit to grant him a wild card, and his failure in the second round of qualifying was ultimately one of the highlights of that edition.
What remains to be said of Thiem's career? You can't really call him the best Austrian player in history, because, in terms of both aura and record, Thomas Muster is ahead of him - they worked together for 16 days, but that's another story.
Nevertheless, he was one of the flagships of the famous 'Next Gen' along with Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and Zverev, and only he and the Russian have gone on to win a Grand Slam title.
Is that enough? Probably not.
A five-year bonus for a single Major and a single Masters 1000 is still too little. His defeats, notably twice in the French Open final against Nadal, will be remembered more than the fact that, in 2019, he beat Djokovic in the semi-finals after one of the greatest matches of his career.
But what remains of the Austrian is a nickname: 'Dominator'. Ironically, the power he exuded may have been responsible for the injury that ruined his career, but it was one of his strong points, and all the more impressive with a one-handed backhand that he was one of the last great heirs to.
A backhand that he successfully changed on the advice of his coach. Who has ever managed to hit backhands at 160 km/h one-handed?
With a style of play like that, and if he'd kept his fitness levels up, he'd no doubt have had a great time in the current conditions. Duels at 100% against Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz would undoubtedly have brought an entire stadium to its feet and provided a royal amount of highlights. And the French Open title, which eluded him because of the best clay-court player in history, would undoubtedly have been in his grasp.
A waste similar to that of Juan Martin del Potro, for example, with the difference that the Argentine has been troubled by injuries throughout his career, whereas it only took the Austrian once to lose his footing.
Dominic Thiem is no longer a professional tennis player, and there will be eternal regrets for one of the outstanding players of the 2010s, who was betrayed by his physique and finally retired to relative anonymity.
But at least he was able to do it on the court. At least we got to see him at his best, even for a fleeting moment.
