Departure for New York

Thiem’s last major appearance: “Was surprised”

Dominic Thiem

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

One last time to enjoy the atmosphere of a really big tennis event at major level, one last time to serve at the site of his greatest triumph: Dominic Thiem has received a wildcard for the 75 million dollar US Open in New York to round off his career. "I'm really looking forward to the US Open because it was a bit of a surprise that I got the wildcard again," said Thiem when asked by APA before his departure on Tuesday.

"I'm happy and motivated. We will fly there on Tuesday, which means we will hopefully have five good training days and of course now in Vienna on hard court," said the former world number three.

Of course, this wildcard for the Lower Austrian, who has since dropped to 210th place, was mainly made possible thanks to his triumph four years ago. Back then, he was the second Austrian after Thomas Muster (French Open 1995) to win a Grand Slam singles tournament. At his 26th major and in his fourth final at the highest tournament level, Thiem wrote red-white-red sporting history on September 13, 2020 (local time or 02:19 a.m. CEST on September 14). In a not very high-class final against the German Alexander Zverev, he came back from 0:2 down in sets to win 2:6, 4:6, 6:4, 6:3, 7:6(6) after 4:01 hours. To this day, Thiem is the first player in the professional era to turn around a 2-0 set deficit in the final at the US Open.

It is also unforgettable that although the final took place in the world's largest tennis stadium, the Arthur Ashe Stadium, there were only a handful of spectators instead of almost 24,000 fans. The coronavirus pandemic had given Thiem and Zverev a "ghost stadium". Nevertheless, Thiem was hugely relieved after winning the title: "I hope that the title makes me feel a bit better in general, because I've had a huge career so far, which I'm very proud of and which I never expected to be like this. But the really big title has been missing so far. The issue is now out of the way and I expect that to help me a bit and that I'll be a bit more relaxed going into the matches and the really big tournaments."

Motivational hole
Immediately afterwards, he reached the quarter-finals at the French Open, which had been postponed to October due to coronavirus, and the final at the ATP Finals in London for a second time. However, there was no great relaxation, but rather a certain saturation and a hole in his motivation. And then came the fateful wrist injury in June 2021. After that, Thiem never got back to the level he had once played at.

In New York in particular, however, tennis fans will remember a defeat worth seeing for a long time: Two years before his triumph in Flushing Meadows, he lost a memorable quarter-final to Rafael Nadal 6-0(!),4-6,5-7,7-6(4),6-7(5) after 4:49 hours shortly after 02:00 in the morning. Thiem spoke afterwards in the press conference at 02:40 local time of his "first truly epic match".

His swansong in New York's Queens district will, of course, take place under completely different circumstances. A single victory at ATP Tour level in the main event this year, even at his Kitzbühel farewell around a month ago, only sporadically showed flashes of his old class in the first round. "Winning the first round 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. The Lichtenwörth native will know his first round opponent on Thursday. After the US Open, Thiem will play at the UTS exhibition event in Frankfurt in October (October 18-20) and then bid farewell to the tennis stage for good at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna's Stadthalle.