Dominic Thiem at peace after playing his final major match at US Open

NEW YORK—Dominic Thiem’s decade-long run at the US Open ended on the first day of this year’s event, on the same court where he enjoyed the most glorious moment of his career.

But the then-and-now couldn’t have been more different.

In 2020, with Gotham in the grip of the Covid pandemic and its associated restrictions, the most prominent sounds in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium (the roof was closed) as Thiem battled Alexander Zverev for the title were the squeak of sneakers on the rubberized asphalt, the echoing calls of the line judges, and the relentless thrumming of the gargantuan climate-control system.

On Monday in Ashe, Thiem played the final Grand Slam match of his distinguished career on a sun-drenched afternoon before a crowd that was as colorful and vocal as it was large. Although Thiem lost in straight sets to the young American star Ben Shelton, who resembled a rocket popsicles in his red, blue and white kit, he was glad of the opportunity to take care of some unfinished business.

“I had my greatest success here on this court in the weird year of 2020,” Thiem reminded the fans in a special post-match on-court interview. “I had that success without any of you. That was the most amazing moment for me, but also a sad one, so I’m super happy that I had a chance to play my last US Open match here on this court, and to spend time with you guys.”

Thiem is just 30 as he departs for parts unknown (he has a deep interest in projects having to do with environmental sustainability, but wants to keep a hand in tennis). A large number of comparably elite players—Stan Wawrinka, Gael Monfils, even Novak Djokovic come to mind—are much older and forcing us to re-think traditional expiration dates. But Thiem is a different man with a different story.

To the untrained eye, Thiem’s serve is still one of the more elegant actions in the game: economic, smooth, seamless. He can still clock a forehand so hard that you can almost feel it in your molars. And there’s his signature, one-handed backhand, still unmistakable if no longer unshakeable. He flings his entire body into it so that as he opens up, he looks a little like he’s just been shot.

But something vital is missing in Thiem. It has been gone since shortly after his epic, five-set win over Zverev four years ago. That day, Thiem became the first man to win a US Open final from two sets down since 1949. It was also the first final decided in a fifth-set tiebreaker.

If that trophy was a gift from the tennis gods, it was a weird and ultimately costly one. Two major obstacles were cleared when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal chose to skip the oddball event, Then, Novak Djokovic was defaulted when he inadvertently struck a linesperson in the throat with a ball fired in anger. Thiem was ranked No. 3 at the time. Suddenly, the title appeared to be his to lose. The stress proved excruciating.

“Maybe it’s less pressure to face the greatest players of all time,” Thiem recently told The Athletic. “Because the US Open, I had to win (in those circumstances), and that was really tough.”

It was so tough that after locking down his first major final in four tries, Thiem suddenly experienced a complete loss of motivation. Instead of becoming fired up about the future once the Grand Slam monkey was off his back, he was left asking himself, “Is that all there is?”

In retrospect, Thiem admitted, he needed the pressure, needed the stress to be “in the zone” where he could play his best.

Still, by the spring of 2021, Thiem was slowly rediscovering his passion for the game. But his results were unexpectedly erratic. Then in the summer, he suffered a serious injury to his right wrist, forcing him to cancel the rest of his bounce-back year. He’s never been the same, and his understanding still isn’t crystal clear.

“I have the feeling that once I got back in a very good mental state, the injury happened,” he said. “Then the feeling, especially on the forehand, never came back like it was before. Of course, due to that, I also was struggling a lot mentally because those two things, mentally and physically, always come together.”

While Thiem believes that the “bad luck” with his wrist is the reason he’s retiring at a relatively young age, he hastened to add, “I’m really happy with the career I had before. I never expected that it’s gonna be that successful, so I don't really have any regrets, and I’m good with that.”

It was certainly a challenging career in which Thiem earned every accolade that came his way. He barreled into the big time 11 years ago with the enthusiasm of a year-old labrador retriever: floppy-limbed, agile and remarkably athletic. He had the misfortune, like a whole passel of his peers, to have hit his stride while the game’s Big Three held all comers under the boot. But Thiem often gave as good as he got.

Until Daniil Medvedev came along, Thiem was the only member of a generation dominated by the Big Three to win a major. There might be an asterisk alongside that 2020 win due to the circumstances, but he also appeared in three other major finals. In 35 meetings with the Big Three, he compiled an impressive 16-19 won-lost record, including five wins in seven tries over Federer.

Thiem defeated Djokovic twice at Roland Garros, but bumped up against 14-time champion Nadal in three straight years (2017 to 2019), including back-to-back finals. His best shot at a major before he won in New York was at the start of the same year, at the Australian Open. He led Djokovic, now a 10-time winner Down Under, by two sets to one, and held a point to go up by a break in the fourth. Unable to convert, Thiem lost 6-4 in the fifth set.

Thiem was renowned for his work ethic under the tutelage of punishing taskmaster Gunter Bresnik. The rigors of Thiem’s practice and playing schedule (in 2015, Thiem entered 29 tournaments—13 more than year-end world No. 1 Djokovic) in his formative years eventually played a role in his break with Bresnik, in 2019. Nicolas Massu, the 2004 Olympic Games gold medalist, shepherded Thiem to his finest result.

Early this year, Thiem acknowledged that he was spinning his wheels. In April, announcing his imminent retirement, he wrote in a social media post: “I’m not the player of 2020 anymore. I have to deal with the current situation, with the fact that my wrist doesn’t give me the strength it used to.”

Deciding to retire proved liberating for Thiem, who said he’s “happy” because he had been struggling enough in the last few years, trying to recapture the magic. “Once I took the decision this year in March, from that moment on, I was happy about it.”

Thiem is at peace with himself. He was undistracted by memories or stray thoughts as he faced Shelton and said, “I was able to focus pretty well on the match. That was what I was also trying to do. But of course, everything was a bit different. I tried to enjoy it. I tried to really soak up every moment in this stadium. It was really nice.”

Thiem knows that as much as he’s looking forward to a rooted life exploring other interests, he is giving up something that he considers rare and irreplaceable.

“The thing I will miss the most is the feeling after winning a great match,” he said after some contemplation. “It's not really comparable to anything else. Like, you don't really get this feeling in life outside of tennis, because it's, like, a real high. . .

“I mean, I know that probably this feeling is not coming back again, so this is for sure also the one I'm going to miss the most.”