US Open 2020 champion Dominic Thiem to begin football career with THIS club

Nearly two years after his tennis retirement, Dominic Thiem is all set to mark a new chapter in his sporting career.

Dominic Thiem has completed an unexpected comeback into competitive sport. The 2020 US Open champion has officially registered with Badener AC, a football club playing in Austria’s eighth division, less than two years after walking away from hanging up his boots in tennis.

His registration with the Austrian Football Federation was processed on July 15, reportedly arranged by a friend already at the club. The club’s coach made clear there’ll be no red-carpet treatment, meaning that Thiem will have to fight for a spot in the starting eleven like anybody else trying to make the squad.

He had already been playing informally for his hometown side, SC Lichtenwörth, but this marks his first official club since leaving the ATP Tour. The 32-year-old has spoken for years about how much football means to him and has been a regular warm-up feature throughout his tennis career.

The move comes down to timing as much as passion. Thiem retired at the end of the 2024 season after a wrist injury he suffered in 2021 never fully healed, and once the door on competitive tennis shut, football was the place his restlessness took him.

Thiem left behind a memorable tennis legacy, having reached his career-best ranking of World No. 3, and his 2020 US Open win remains the highlight of his career, as he came back from two sets down against Alexander Zverev in the final, becoming the first man to do that at Flushing Meadows in 71 years.

Apart from that title, he was a two-time French Open runner-up and an Australian Open finalist, and also reached the ATP Finals title match twice; during this period, he won 17 tour titles amidst an era almost completely dominated by the ‘Big Three’.

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