Enjoy the atmosphere of a major tennis event once more, serve once more at the site of his greatest triumph: Dominic Thiem has finished his career with a Wildcard for the 75 million dollar prize US Open in New York “I’m really looking forward to the US Open because it was a bit surprising that I got the wildcard again,” said Thiem before his departure on Tuesday.
“I’m happy and motivated. We’ll fly there on Tuesday, which means we’ll have five hopefully good days of training and of course now in Vienna on hard court,” said the former third-placed player in the world rankings.
This wildcard was made possible for the Lower Austrian, who has since fallen to 210th place, mainly thanks to his triumph four years ago. Back then, he was the second Austrian after Thomas Muster (French Open 1995) won a Grand Slam tournament in singles. In his 26th major and in his fourth final at the highest tournament level, Thiem wrote red-white-red sports history on September 13, 2020 (local time or 2:19 a.m. CEST on September 14).
He won in a not very high-class final against the German Alexander Zverev a 0:2 in sets and won after 4:01 hours with 2:6, 4:6, 6:4, 6:3, 7:6 (6). Thiem is to this day the first player of the professional era to win the US Open turned around a 0-2 set deficit in the final.
The missing puzzle piece
It is also unforgettable that although the final took place in the largest tennis stadium in the world, Arthur Ashe Stadium, only a handful of spectators were present instead of almost 24,000 fans. The coronavirus pandemic had Thiem and Zverev a “ghost stadium”. Thiem was still extremely relieved after the title: “I hope that the title will make me feel a little bit relieved in general, because I’ve had a great career so far, which I’m very proud of and which I never expected. But the really big title was missing until now. That topic is now ticked off and I also hope that it will help me and that I’ll be a little more relaxed going into the matches and the really big tournaments.”
Immediately afterwards, he reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, which had been postponed to October due to Corona, and the final for a second time at the ATP Finals in London. But there was no great relaxation, but rather a certain saturation and a Motivation hole. And then in June 2021, Mallorca the fateful Wrist injuryThiem never returned to the level he once played at.
“Epic game” against Nadal
Especially in New York But tennis fans will also remember a remarkable defeat for a long time: Two years before his triumph in Flushing Meadows, he lost a memorable match shortly after 2 a.m. Quarterfinals against Rafael Nadal after 4:49 hours with 6:0, 4:6, 5:7, 7:6 (4), 6:7 (5). Thiem then spoke in the press conference at 2:40 a.m. local time about his “first truly epic match”.
His swan song in the New York district of Queens will of course take place under very different circumstances. A single victory at ATP Tour level in the main competition this year, also at his Kitzbuhel-Farewell about a month ago, his old class only sporadically flashed through in the first round.
“A first-round win is of course the goal, but that absolutely depends on the draw. I hope that I can play a really good last US Open,” hopes Thiem. First round opponent The Lichtenwörther knows this on Thursday.
After the US Open, Thiem will play at the UTS exhibition event in Frankfurt (18 to 20 October) and then bids farewell to the Erste Bank Open in the Vienna City Hall finally from the tennis stage.
(Agency, point)
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19.08.2024, 9:49
