Dominic Thiem’s grand slam career is over, ended in swift and summary fashion by Ben Shelton in the opening round of the US Open.
Four years after claiming the greatest triumph of his career in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where he squeaked past Alexander Zverev in an angst-ridden fifth-set tiebreak to secure his only major championship, the 30-year-old Austrian bade a poignant farewell on the same stage, falling to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 defeat at the hands of the 13th-seeded Shelton.
The outcome, though, felt less significant than the occasion. For Thiem, who announced earlier this year that he intends to retire at October’s Vienna Open after failing to recover from a wrist injury suffered in the summer of 2021, merely making the starting line in New York was cathartic. If not for the former world No 3 himself, then certainly to the many onlookers left gobsmacked that, in his final season, he was overlooked for a wild card at both Roland Garros – where he was a finalist in 2018 and 2019 – and Wimbledon.
While Thiem was given a relatively low-key sendoff on Court Suzanne Lenglen after a second round qualifying loss in Paris, the United States Tennis Association did right by their former champion, granting him a place in the main draw and, fittingly, a final outing in one of the sport’s most historic arenas. It meant that Thiem, whose 2020 title win was played in a stadium bereft of spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic, was belatedly able to share a moment with the New York public.
“Thank you so much for all your support on all those years,” said Thiem, addressing the crowd after a lovely show of respect from Shelton, who exchanged warm words with his vanquished opponent before orchestrating the home crowd’s applause for the former champion. “It’s been 10 years since I played here the first time.
“It’s actually a really important moment for me, because I had the greatest success of my career here on this court in this weird 2020, under very strange and different circumstances. Unfortunately, I had this success without any of you. So that was of course, at one point, a really amazing moment, but on the other hand also pretty sad.
“So I’m super happy that I got the chance to play my last US Open, my last match here, on this court, and I can spend now some time here with you guys, just to say thank you to all of you and make the time up for what we have missed four years ago. So that’s a really special moment, and I’m very grateful for everybody who came and everybody who got me the chance to play here one last time.”
Thiem’s evident gratitude was in one sense a measure of his perverse treatment at the preceding two majors, yet the Austrian has learned the hard way to take nothing for granted. His injury, which came at a moment when he was rediscovering his passion for the game after struggling to come to terms with the enormity of his victory in New York, was both cruelly timed and a brutal reminder of how fragile a career can be in elite sport.
“You hate to see a guy like that, such a nice guy, great player, go through the injuries and deal with all that he’s dealt with,” said Shelton. “But I think if I learn anything from him, it’s that this is a game that is unforgiving. Things can change quick. You can be at the top of the game, and your body doesn’t hold up or some freak accident happens. Injuries happen all the time. So tennis isn’t forever.’
In many ways, Shelton was an apt author of Thiem’s final US Open chapter. For all the stylistic differences between the pair, there are also parallels. They may be at opposite ends of their respective careers, but Thiem too was once the big-hitting, hyper-athletic young buck eager to crash the party against more celebrated rivals. For Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer then, read Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and (perhaps more contentiously) Holger Rune now. Different trio, similar challenge.
Already two places clear of the 15th-ranked Rune, Shelton is on a promising trajectory – even if his quest to defend the 720 points he earned for last year’s run to the semi-finals has been complicated by a draw that could pit him against Frances Tiafoe in the third round, followed by Djokovic. In fine fettle after skipping the Olympics to ply his trade on home soil, where he has already posted a semi-final finish in Washington and made the last eight in Cincinnati, Shelton moved smoothly through the gears against Thiem, pulling away rapidly after securing a tight opening set. How dearly he would like to follow the path trodden by Thiem four years ago.
“I feel pretty fine-tuned with the little things on the court right now,” said Shelton. “I’ve gotten a lot of match play.
“Coming into this tournament last year, I had little to no confidence, hardly any match wins. So it feels a little different being here this year. I just feel a little more at peace with my game, and I feel like I know my identity out there on the court.”
Thiem too knows what it is to have a clear sense of identity – and, until he fell victim to injury, that identity was almost invariably one of a winner. The pattern is nowhere more apparent than in his record against the big three of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer, against whom he won a collective total of 16 matches in 35 meetings. Although Thiem was unable to find a way past those players in grand slam finals, twice finishing runner-up to Nadal in Paris and losing out to Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open, it is a tally neither Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, nor any other player born after 1990 can match. There could be no clearer evidence that his was a generational talent.
“I had really legendary matches against the best players in our era, maybe the best players in history,” said Thiem. “Each of them is really unique. I have the feeling it depends on the day, it depends on the surface, who is actually the toughest to play.
“I had matches against them where I was winning, against each of them, but I also had matches against each of them where I didn’t have any chance and where they made me look like almost a beginner. I mean, each of them is unique.”
As his monumental US Open victory demonstrated, so too is Thiem.