10 things to know about Dominic Thiem’s career as he retires from professional tennis

Dominic Thiem, one of the most accomplished (and beloved) tennis players on the tour, is playing the last tournament of his professional career in front of his home crowd in Vienna this week.

He’ll face Italy’s Luciano Darderi in the first round on Tuesday.

Here are 10 things to know about Thiem’s incredible career:

He’s a Grand Slam champion, winning the 2020 US Open. And he did it in style, battling back from two sets and a break down—and then another break down in the fifth set—to defeat Alexander Zverev in the final, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6). He was also two points from losing the match in the fifth set. He’s still the only man in the Open Era to win a US Open final from two sets down.

He was the first man born in 1990 or later to win a Grand Slam title. Going into the 2020 US Open, men born in the 1980s had won the last 63 majors in a row—but the 1993-born Thiem finally broke that streak with his triumph in Flushing Meadows. He’s since been joined by one more man born in the 1990s (Daniil Medvedev) and two born in the 2000s (Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner).

He’s also the last player with a one-handed backhand to win a Grand Slam title. Before Thiem, the last one-hander to win a major was Roger Federer at the 2018 Australian Open.

Overall, he’s won 17 career titles. After his US Open title, his next-biggest are a Masters 1000 at Indian Wells in 2019 (beating Federer in an all-one-hander final) and five ATP 500s at Acapulco in 2016, Rio de Janeiro in 2017 and Barcelona, Beijing and Vienna in 2019.

He’s also been to another 12 career finals—including three more Grand Slam finals. He also reached two Roland Garros finals in 2018 and 2019 (falling to Rafael Nadal both times) and the Australian Open final in 2020, too (falling to Novak Djokovic).

He reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in 2020. He actually finished five consecutive years in the Top 10—he ended 2016 at No. 8, 2017 at No. 5, 2018 at No. 8, 2019 at No. 4 and 2020 at his career-high of No. 3. He’s the second-highest-ranked Austrian player in either ATP or WTA rankings history, after 1995 Roland Garros champion and former world No. 1 Thomas Muster.

He racked up 32 career wins over Top 10 players. That includes 20 wins over Top 5 players, 15 wins over Top 3 players and five wins over world No. 1s—one against Andy Murray (2017 Barcelona semifinals), two against Nadal (2018 Madrid quarterfinals and 2020 Australian Open quarterfinals) and two against Djokovic (2019 Roland Garros semifinals and 2020 ATP Finals semifinals).

He’s one of only two players—along with Murray—to have five or more career wins over each of the Big 3. Thiem beat Federer five times, Nadal six times and Djokovic five times. Murray, meanwhile, defeated Federer 11 times, Nadal seven times and Djokovic 11 times.

He’s earned more than $30 million in career prize money, one of only 14 men in ATP history to do so. He’s at $30,312,316 going into Vienna. He’s one of five men born in 1990 or later to hit that mark alongside Zverev, Medvedev, Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

And finally, he would probably still be a top player had it not been for his wrist injury in 2021. He was ranked No. 5 when it happened at the Wimbledon lead-up event in Mallorca in June that year. He would be off the tour for nine months, missing the next three majors—including his title defense at the US Open. He returned in March 2022 ranked No. 50, and despite reaching one more ATP final, three more ATP semifinals and five more ATP quarterfinals, he hasn't reached his previous incredible heights since then.

He does have one more tournament to go, though...