Dominic Thiem rose to stardom is what many consider, the Golden Era of Tennis. Throughout his career, he was surrounded by Novak, Roger, Rafa, Stan, Andy, Zverev, Medvedev and many others. Let's take a look back and remember DT for what he was/is, a legend.
Violent Groundstrokes
When Dominic came onto the scene, it was the first time I had ever seen a tennis ball be hit with that level of pace. Every single ground stroke felt personal. He didn't care who he was playing or what surface he was on, Thiem was going to take his game and force you to play on his terms. It was amazing to watch, he wasn't 6'6 and physically gifted but when he lined up that one hand backhand, you knew he was on the offensive side of things.
Grand Slam Win
In an era where the GS trophies were dominated by 3 individuals, Dominic Thiem getting his U.S. Open Grand Slam trophy was nothing short of spectacular. The whole crowd was rooting for him and at the time, it looked like it would be a career defining moment. While it definitely was a lifelong goal of his, he had a great quote from a recent interview, "I thought that it would make me happy forever, and would change my life forever. But, of course, it’s not like that. It’s an illusion. Basically, nothing changed." I think it is something we can all learn from. We spend years and decades of our lives chasing unimaginable goals only to realize that the journey outweighs the end result 10 out of 10 times.
Injuries
Father time waits for no man. We've heard it too many times before in the tennis world. You would hope a player like Dominic would be able to retire on his own terms but nothing ends a career quite like a wrist injury (Sock, Delpo, Jo Willy and others). The last several years, Dominic didn't have the same jovial exuberance to him that he traditionally wore. As fans of the game, we can only hope that his next chapter brings him even more joy than his previous one.
Until then, thank you Dominic Thiem for the fight, pursuit and excellence over the last 15 years.
