Dominic Thiem is still playing in Kitzbühel, the US Open and Vienna. Unless an Olympic opportunity opens up at short notice and Andy Murray cancels for Paris. The main reason why Thiem, who will be 31 on September 3, is ending his career is that the former US Open winner has not found his old form after his wrist injury on June 22, 2021. Also because after recovering from the injury, he was never able to use his right wrist as much as before.
The former world number three, who reached three other major finals in addition to the US Open title, does not regret avoiding wrist surgery at the time. Alexander Zverev, his long-time German tour friend who lost to him in five sets in the 2020 US Open final, had still advised Thiem to do so in a comment on his retirement last May.
Zverev’s brother Mischa had exactly the same injury ten years ago. “The only difference between my brother and Dominic is that my brother had an operation,” Zverev said in Rome at the time. Afterward, his wrist was “even stronger than before.” “I would maybe like to tell him to try again and have the operation.”
“I believe I did everything I could for this”
When asked by APA on Monday in Kitzbühel, Thiem said the decision whether to have surgery or not was not an easy one. “I think I did everything I could. The question was there. We racked our brains about it for a long time. Of course, right after the injury. We said I’d try the conservative approach, which worked out well.”
At the beginning of 2022, the pain in his hand came back. “I talked about it for a long time with Dr. Frederik Verstreken back then,” Thiem reported of a conversation with the Belgian specialist. He has great confidence in Verstreken. “In the situation at the time, an operation would have been a risk. The chance that something would get worse was too high,” explained Thiem. In addition, there are enough players for whom an operation no longer worked.
But it is also a fact that the injury in Mallorca was the beginning of the end of a great career. Most recently in Gstaad, Thiem said that his wrist no longer caused him any pain. “But there is a lack of feeling, of sensitivity. It is not enough for the top, where everything has to be right.” Whether an operation would have changed anything is something that Thiem fans will probably have to wonder about for a long time.
