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The career of Austria’s most successful tennis player since Thomas Muster is coming to an end this year. On Friday, Dominic Thiem made official what the media had already been whistling from the rooftops days ago: the Lower Austrian is hanging up his racket this year. “The 2024 season will be my last,” said Thiem in his statement.
10.05.2024 12.05
Online since today, 12:05 p.m
On Wednesday, Thiem’s brother and manager Moritz Thiem announced a statement at the end of the week regarding the rumor that arose in the “Salzburger Nachrichten” on Tuesday. As expected, Thiem let the cat out of the bag on Friday.
“The 2024 season will be my last. I’m going to end my career. One of the reasons is my wrist injury. I had successes that I never dreamed of. It was an incredible journey. In the end, I came to the decision that it was the right decision to end my career this year,” said Thiem in a post shared in English on Instagram.
There was no upswing
Since the “year of decision” he announced in January did not bring the desired success and the damaged wrist was causing problems again, it was over in the fall. Until then, the 30-year-old, who will appear publicly on May 16th as part of the 4Gamechangers Festival in Vienna, will only play a few selected tournaments – including the Generali Open in Kitzbühel.
Reuters/USA TODAY Sports/Danielle Parhizkaran Winning the 2020 US Open was the highlight of Dominic Thiem’s career
Thiem can only be found in 117th place in the ATP computer. He only made it past the first round at the 250cc tournament in Estoril at the beginning of April. Most recently, the qualification for the Masters tournament in Madrid came to an early end.
Bad luck with injuries after a career highlight
Estoril was the last low blow since 2021, when Thiem’s career took a dramatic turn. In 2020, Austria’s then number one followed the final at the Australian Open in Melbourne with the title at the US Open in New York. It was only the second tournament victory for an Austrian at a Grand Slam event along the lines of the 1995 French Open in Paris.
A wrist injury derailed Thiem, who has 17 titles to his name, in 2021. After a long break, Thiem has been trying in vain to get back on the road to success. Reaching the Kitzbühel final in 2023 was the highlight, but Thiem was no longer expected to climb higher than 72nd place in the world rankings. The Erste Bank Open in the Wiener Stadthalle at the end of October could be his farewell performance.
