Dominic Thiem candidly admitted that he had already seen the writing on the wall two years ago as that was when he started accepting that he was heading toward retirement.
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On Tuesday, the 31-year-old's career officially came to an end in Vienna following a 6-7 (5) 2-6 defeat to Luciano Darderi. Moments after the match ended, the Austrian remained on the court and the home fans greeted him with a standing ovation.
After injuring his wrist at a grass-court tournament in Mallorca in 2021, Thiem expected to be ready to play again in two months. But he ended up missing next 10 months and not playing again until the spring of 2022. After returning to tennis, the 2020 US Open champion didn't come anywhere near his old level and it was pretty ugly at times.
I think it helped that I took the decision already in March and that I had the time to prepare. The last two years or so, I saw that I'm not going to be able to come back to the ranking and to the playing level I once had. I knew that slowly, my tennis career is coming to an end. I needed to look for new ways because there's going to be life after tennis," Thiem said.
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Thiem lost his last six professional matches
After beating Franco Agamenone in his French Open qualifying opener, the former world No. 3 lost to Otto Virtanen in the second round. The Agamenone win turned out to be the last of the Austrian's career as he ended up picking first-round defeats in his last five tournaments in Mallorca, Gstaad, Kitzbuhel, the US Open and Vienna.
While it may be disappointing to see Thiem retire just a month after turning 31, there is zero doubt that he did the right thing. On Tuesday night, he received a special tribute from Roger Federer.
An illustrious career comes to a close. Congratulations Domi," Federer wrote on his Instagram Story.
