Dominic Thiem joins the calls against reckless scheduling on ATP Tour as he terms it “not healthy”

Dominic Thiem, who was forced to retire from tennis due to injuries, has expressed disapproval of how tennis is being played currently.

Dominic Thiem joins the calls against reckless scheduling on ATP Tour as he terms it “not healthy”

Dominic Thiem (Image via ATP Tour)

Dominic Thiem recently retired from professional tennis. The Austrian tennis ace, who lost three Grand Slam finals before finally clinching his maiden Major title at the 2020 US Open, was forced to retire due to persistent injuries.

Days after his last match on the tour, Thiem called out how tennis is currently being played. The 31-year-old suffered a career-threatening injury at the Mallorca Open in June 2021, nine months after his impressive win in New York.

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Thiem badly injured his wrist while reaching for a forehand. He stayed out of action for a long time and when he tried to come back, things did not fall in place.

Eventually, Thiem, touted to become the next big thing in men’s tennis, made peace with the fact that he could not redeem his old self, and decided to call it a day. However, he does hold some regret about what could have been better.

I think the way we do the sport, it’s not healthy, and at one point, one part or more parts of the body break down. You can see it with almost every player, there is no player who comes injury free through their career.

Dominic Thiem said (via The Guardian)

Thiem, however, admitted that injuries are part of the sport. Opening up about his problems with the wrist and what caused that major injury, the former World No. 3 revealed that he used the wrist way too much which eventually led to its breaking.

It’s not really surprising, because I was obviously using the wrist so much, especially at the forehand, and it was one of my most important parts the last moments before hitting the ball to accelerate a bit more with the wrist…The wrist got just a little bit too weak and then it broke. After that I never had the same feeling.

Dominic Thiem added

The Austrian stayed out of action for ten months when he first suffered his wrist injury. As a result of his absence, he dropped out of the top 300 in the rankings. Thiem tried to make a comeback but the injury returned in March this year, forcing the ATP ace to announce his retirement.

Dominic Thiem goes out with no regrets

Although he was forced to hang up his racket due to the persistent injury, Dominic Thiem has no regrets whatsoever. He claimed that he was leaving the tour with satisfaction.

Dominic Thiem
Dominic Thiem (Image via X)

After his last match in Vienna, Thiem expressed gratitude for the fact that he was able to realize his dream and compete at the highest level. The Austrian also claimed that he felt privileged to compete in the same era as the Big Three.

I was very lucky to stay healthy most of the time to basically live out all my dreams. And yes, I never expected to have a career like this when I was young. All I wanted was to be a professional tennis player, whatever that brought…The privilege of playing in the same era, alongside the Big 3, the Big 4, makes me very happy.

Dominic Thiem said (H/T: Puntodebreak)

Thiem reiterated his claim about going out satisfied. He claimed that “everything kind of makes sense” to him now and that he is happy about how things went. Thiem ended his career with a win-loss record of 348-215. He claimed 17 tour-level titles and $30.3 million in prize money.