Former U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem has confirmed he will retire from tennis at the end of the 2024 season.
The Austrian, who reached a ranking peak of world No 3 in 2020, released a video statement today (Friday) explaining that his persistent wrist injury and a general belief that the time is right have led him to end his career in around six months.
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“My wrist is not exactly the way it should be, and it’s not how I want it,” he said.
“The second reason is my inner feeling. I was thinking about this decision for a very long time… I was thinking about the whole journey as a tennis player, which was incredible. I’ve won trophies I’ve never dreamt of,” he said.
Thiem, 30, is notable for a 16-18 record against the ‘Big Three’ of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic, giving him a 47 per cent win rate, the highest of any player against them. His maiden Grand Slam title, a victory from two sets down against Alexander Zverev in 2020, was marred by Covid-19 restrictions and the edgy quality of the match, putting a deceptive slant on the reputation of a player right at the top of the generation cursed to face Nadal, Federer and Djokovic from one side, and Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner from the other.
Thiem has reached three more Grand Slam finals, losing to Nadal in 2018 and 2019 at the French Open, and to Djokovic at the Australian Open in 2020. He had to beat Djokovic on the way to the 2019 final at Roland Garros and Nadal on the way to the 2020 final in Melbourne; four of his six wins against Nadal came on clay, and he has a 5-2 winning record over Federer, including a win on grass in Stuttgart in 2016.
His wrist injury has blighted his career since 2021, with the Austrian never regaining anything like his best tennis after suffering the injury on the back of comfortably his best year on the tour. Having watched Federer retire, and Nadal suffer injuries of his own, he will no doubt wonder — in his last six months — what might have been.
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He has won 17 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
His pre-retirement announcement follows that of Diego Schwartzman, who confirmed this week that he will end his career in Argentina later in the year. Despite Thiem still having plenty of tennis to play, outpourings of emotion have expectedly greeted the announcement. He had to make that announcement after rumours turned into reports in the Austrian media, displaying a growing change in how retirement and valedictory tours are conducted in the sport. In April and May alone — and the year at large — the pre-announcement (Thiem, Schwartzman); the farewell swing (Nadal); the conventional conference after years of inactivity (Garbine Muguruza), and, now, the sudden disappearance (Camila Giorgi) have all been on display.
(Top photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)