UPDATE: Dominic Thiem won't return to action in Abu Dhabi this week

UPDATE: Dominic Thiem tweeted this note on Tuesday morning, saying that he in fact will not be playing in Abu Dhabi.

After what was arguably the biggest year of his career in 2020—where, despite the tour being suspended for five months due to COVID-19, he managed to not only reach a career-high ranking of No. 3, but also win his first Grand Slam title at the US Open—Dominic Thiem had an injury-marred 2021, ending his season in June.

But in a few days, he’ll make his return to action.

Thiem, who hasn’t played since injuring his right wrist in Mallorca, the week before Wimbledon, will play the Mubadala World Tennis Championship later this week.

He first announced his intentions to come back in Abu Dhabi in early November.

“I am very happy to announce that my recovery is going well,” he shared on social media. “The MRI I did today showed that my wrist injury has improved significantly. A couple of weeks ago I started playing with soft balls and was able to switch to normal tennis balls during yesterday’s practice session. My team and I strongly believe that I’ll be ready to make my comeback to competition later this year.

“I’ll be returning to competition in December and will be playing the MWTC 2021 in Abu Dhabi—with the objective to return to the tour for the 2022 Australian Open.”

Thiem will be making his third career appearance at the Abu Dhabi exhibition event, having been a semifinalist in 2017 and a quarterfinalist in 2018.

Unfortunately, Thiem’s lengthy lay-off from the tour caused him to drop out of the Top 10. He was ranked No. 5 when he last played the week before Wimbledon, and on November 1st he dipped from No. 9 to No. 12, his first time outside the Top 10 since he first broke into the elite more than five years ago, on June 6, 2016.

That ended a run of 260 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10, not counting the 22 weeks the ATP rankings were frozen in 2020 due to COVID-19. At the time, that was the second-longest active streak inside the Top 10 of the ATP rankings after Rafael Nadal, who’s been ranked inside the elite for more than 16 years now.

Thiem dipped a little bit further to No. 15 by the November 22nd year-end rankings.

Regardless of where he’s ranked at the moment, though, a healthy Thiem can strike again at any time and move right back up. He’s had particularly fond memories in Melbourne, where he made the final in 2020 and led Novak Djokovic by two sets to one before barely losing in five sets, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, after almost four hours.

Thiem will kick off his campaign in Abu Dhabi with a quarterfinal match against Andy Murray on Thursday, with the winner to play Nadal in the semifinals on Friday.

“I was keen to find the right opportunity to make my return to the court and the Mubadala World Tennis Championship comes at a great time,” Thiem told MubadalaWTC.com. “The Championship offers the perfect environment to continue my comeback and play against the top guys on tour.”