Top five achievements of Dominic Thiem's career

Dominic Thiem expects his last tournament to be the ATP 500 Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem has officially announced that he will retire at the end of the season. Thiem’s decision to retire at the end of the year was made public after he got knocked out in the qualifiers at the recently-concluded Madrid Open. This coincides with his injury issues and patchy form on the ATP Tour.

The Austrian won his first and only Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows in 2020. He rose to his highest ranking of World No. 3 in the same year. However, a terrible string of injuries has since caused his form and on-court performances to decline.

Thiem suffered a severe injury to his right wrist during a match at the Mallorca Championships in June of 2021. He never completely recovered from that injury and never regained the form that won him the Slam at Flushing Meadows. After three years, he’s decided to call it time.

Thus, let’s dig deep into Dominic Thiem’s career and look at five of his greatest achievements:

1. First Austrian player to win US Open

Tennis at the outset might seem like an individual sport, yet a few countries like the United States, Australia, Spain and more have dominated it. Meanwhile, a country like Austria is not seen as a natural choice to produce players winning Grand Slams. Thomas Muster was initially the only Austrian to have ever won a Grand Slam when he lifted the title at Roland Garros in 1995.

The country had to wait two and a half decades before another Austrian, Dominic Thiem, won the US Open in 2020. It was a historic win in the tennis world, as he came back from two sets down against Alexander Zverev in the final to take home the Grand Slam.

2. First male player born after 1990 to win a grand slam

Dominic Thiem rose to fame from the Boys Grand Slam when he reached the final of the 2011 French Open Boys tournament. It was not a long time before he would do the same after turning pro. As expected, he reached the finals of the French Open in 2018 and 2019, only to fall to Rafael Nadal at both editions.

But 2020 was his year, as he had a dream run in the curtailed season and ended it by lifting the title at Flushing Meadows. He was the first male player born in the 1990s to claim a major singles title.

3. Record against big three

The Big Three – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic—have dominated the world of tennis and it is not often one would see a player doing the same against them. Dominic Thiem has an impressive 16-19 win-loss record against them. The 30-year-old is one of two players to have defeated Nadal four times or more.

He dominated Federer, winning five of the seven outings they had. Against Djokovic, it was a 5-7 record, which included a five-set win over two days lasting four hours and 13 minutes at the 2019 French Open.

4. Fourth tennis player to win Austrian Sportsman of the Year

Austria is a rich sporting nation known to produce great sportspersons in skiing, mountaineering, fencing, Formula One and so on. They are recognized every year with the Austrian Sportsman Of The Year award. The likes of Ellen Preis in fencing, Niki Lauda in Formula One and Anna Fenninger in skiing have been recognized with the honour.

Dominic Thiem was recognized with the award in 2020 after winning the US Open. He was the fourth tennis player to get it in its 75-year history.

5. Record across surfaces

Tennis is a physically demanding sport because of the different conditions and surfaces. A player has to be at the top of his fitness to compete. Players who are very young need to play a lot and build that physique to be the rightful challengers.

Dominic Thiem is one of the players who has done that and has a good record across surfaces. The Austrian has won 17 titles, with at least one title on each surface. He has also reached four Grand Slam finals, including his memorable US Open triumph in 2020.

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