Stagnation assessed for Dominic Thiem after ending season with negative win-loss record and nearly out of top 100

Austria’s tennis star Dominic Thiem’s much-awaited return to professional tennis did not go as per plan with another disappointing outing at the Moselle Open.

The 30-year-old returned to the court this year after a lengthy spell on the sidelines because of fitness concerns and there were hopes of him regaining his past form and becoming a force to be reckoned with.

However, that did not prove to be the case as Thiem has found it hard to deliver positive results consistently. He recently suffered a round of 16 exit from the Moselle Open after losing to France’s Ugo Humbert with a score of 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

With that result, Thiem will finish 2023 after winning just 19 matches out of 44 with 25 defeats and his year-end ranking will be 94. Before his disappointing outing in Metz, the Wiener Neustadt-born was knocked out of the Paris Masters from the round of 32 as he lost to Denmark’s Holger Rune in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-2.

The 2020 US Open champion also took part in the main round of all four Grand Slams but managed to book his place in the second round or beyond on just one occasion. His best outing came while playing in New York where he crashed out of the mega-event after he was forced to retire against America’s Ben Shelton.