"It’s a very complete story": Dominic Thiem happy to retire at 31

Former Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem has stated that he feels his career was a ‘complete story’. The former world number four surprisingly decided to retire at the age of 31, largely because he could not reclaim his form after suffering a serious wrist injury that kept him out of action for nearly 12 months.

Thiem was once regarded as one of the players to take the reigns from the ‘Big Three’ in men’s tennis, specially when he lifted the US Open back in 2020 after beating current world number two Germany’s Alexander Zverev in a five-set thriller with a score of 2–6, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6. Thiem’s last appearance was on home soil, where he lost to Luciano Darderi in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2 in October last year.

Thiem was recently quoted in a report by Tennis 365, in which he stated that he feels his tennis career is a ‘very complete story’. The former world number three was of the opinion that he managed to achieve ‘more’ than he ever ‘expected’ and stated that even though he retired at the age of 31, he played tennis professionally for about ‘20 years’.

“Yes, definitely. On paper it says I had a career from 2011 to 2024, but that’s not true,” he said. “Your career starts when you’re eleven or twelve. Then you start to base your whole life around the sport. Before you even start playing professionally, eight or nine years have already passed, and they’re very exhausting. You have to put all your energy into it every day, train for hours. For me, that’s just as much a part of a career as the years when you’re famous and playing on the real tour. That’s why, at 31, I’ve probably had 20 years and achieved more than I ever expected. So, for me, it’s a very complete story.”