p At peace with his impending retirement and the end of his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a career, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/dominic-thiem/tb69/overview'Dominic Thiem/a was happy to sign off in New York with a final appearance on a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-ashe/a063/overview'Arthur Ashe/a Stadium on Monday afternoon. /p
p “Everything was a bit different,” said Thiem in his post-match press conference after his straight-sets defeat to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ben-shelton/s0s1/overview'Ben Shelton/a. “I tried to enjoy, I tried to really soak up every moment in this stadium. It was really nice. I think I was able to focus on the match, but of course I don’t have that level anymore that is required to really go head-to-head with players like Ben. /p
p “This I also knew before, so of course I tried to enjoy as much as possible, but still, I was focusing on the match pretty good.” /p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"New York will forever love Domi ❤️brbr2020 champion a href="https://twitter.com/domithiem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@domithiem/a bids an emotional farewell to the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a ????a href="https://twitter.com/usopen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@usopen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#USOpen/aa href="https://t.co/Zfx5KJlx5s"pic.twitter.com/Zfx5KJlx5s/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1828139848848552175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"August 26, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
p Thiem will end his career later this year as the owner of a 23-9 record at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a. That tally includes the highlight of the Austrian’s career: his run to his only Grand Slam trophy at the 2020 edition of the hard-court major. /p
p “When I came first here as a pro, I straightaway played fourth round, and that gave me a boost for all the upcoming years,” said Thiem, when asked to reflect on his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a career. “I think it's like that. If you have really good memories or if you have a good start at something, this really gives you positive vibes for the future. It was like that, because the only really bad year I had here was 2019, when I lost in the first round and when I was not 100 per cent healthy. /p
p "Other than that, I almost only had great highlight years. The 2017 [five-set match] against [a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juan-martin-del-potro/d683/overview'Juan Martin del Potro/a], which was back then a really, really tough loss to handle. But now, it's a legendary match, which I really like to remember actually, and then of course the epic [five-set 2018 quarter-final] with Rafa [Nadal] was great. /p
p “But still, 2020 is above everything, and is also above everything else in my tennis career.” /p
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p Thiem will bring his career to a close on home soil in October at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/vienna/337/overview'Erste Bank Open/a in Vienna. The former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, whose time at the top of the game was curtailed by a long-term wrist injury, is ready for his next chapter. /p
p “I'm happy. I was struggling enough, the last years, especially since I was not able to come back to my level,” said Thiem. “But once I took the decision this year in March, from this moment on, I was happy about it. /p
p “Obviously I was also able to kind of prepare already this new chapter that is coming soon. Honestly, I always loved playing on Tour, and I was very patient about it, but honestly, I also always really enjoyed being at home and to have, as much as it was possible, a kind of normal life at home. /p
p “That's why I really look forward to this now, now that the normal life is now coming. That's why I think it's not that difficult for me, and that's why I'm really also happy with my decision.” /p
p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p
