Dominic Thiem to retire at the end of 2024

Dominic Thiem (Google Images)

While there is a lot of speculation that tennis legends Andy Murray of Great Britain and Rafael Nadal of Spain will retire at the end of the 2024 tennis season, we now know that 2020 United States Open champion Dominic Thiem of Wiener Neustadt, Austria will retire at the end of the 2024 tennis season at the age of 31 according to the Associated Press on Wednesday. The primary reason for his retirement has been an on going wrist injury that has prevented him from playing high calibre tennis for the last three years.

Thiem was ranked as high as number three in the world on March 2, 2020. That came right before the coronavirus pandemic hit. This past week he dropped to 131st in the world rankings, and did not qualify for the 2024 French Open which starts Sunday in Roland Garros. Thiem lost in the second round of qualifying on Wednesday to Otto Virtanen of Finland, 6-2, 7-5.

Thiem’s only grand slam title victory was the aforementioned 2020 U.S. Open. In the final, Thiem defeated Alexander Zverev of Germany, in a dramatic five set thriller, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6.

Remarkably, Thiem’s ATP title at Flushing Meadows was the last singles tournament victory of his career. He won 17 tournaments in all. The other 16 were the 2015 and 2016 Nice Open in France, the 2015 Croatia Open, the 2015 Swiss Open, the 2016 and 2018 Argentina Open, the 2016 Mexican Open, the 2016 Stuttgart Open, the 2017 Rio Open, the 2018 Lyon Open, the 2018 St. Petersburg Open, the 2019 Indian Wells Masters, the 2019 Barcelona Open, the 2019 Austrian Open, the 2019 China Open, and the 2019 Vienna Open.