Dominic Thiem makes ‘not healthy’ claim as he discusses tennis injury issues
Dominic Thiem has claimed the way tennis players play the sport is “not healthy” as he opened up about dealing with a long-term injury issue in the final seasons of his career.
Former world No 3 and US Open champion Thiem retired from tennis at the Vienna Open this week, just four years after winning his sole Grand Slam title in New York.
The Austrian won 17 career titles and reached a further 12 finals – including three finals at majors – but never fully recovered from a significant wrist injury sustained in Mallorca in June 2021.
Aged only 31, Thiem is retiring at a comparatively young age for the modern game; Andy Murray was 37 when he retired in August, and Rafael Nadal is leaving the game aged 38.
Speaking to The Guardian, the Austrian claimed that the way tennis players play is “not healthy”, and that his wrist injury was ultimately related to the way he played the sport.
He said: “I think the way we do the sport, it’s not healthy, and at one point, one part or more parts of the body break down.
“You can see it with almost every player, there is no player who comes injury-free through their career. That’s just the way of professional sport. And in my case, it was the wrist.
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“It’s not really surprising, because I was obviously using the wrist so much, especially at the forehand, and it was one of my most important parts the last moments before hitting the ball to accelerate a bit more with the wrist.
“I was doing this probably millions of times, and at one point, that’s also what the doctor said. The wrist got just a little bit too weak and then it broke. After that I never had the same feeling.”
At the height of his career, Thiem was renowned for his intense playing style – and for playing a busy schedule.
And he admitted that his wrist injury had impaired his ability to match his previous physical ability on court, ultimately leading to his exit from the game.
“That’s the way I grew up, this training style with a lot of intensity and really giving it 100% every single shot,” he added.
“That was physically very demanding. And also, from a very early age, I got used to high-volume practice, practising like three, four hours straight, or three hours twice [a day].
“The last couple of years, it was so difficult to keep up with that [high] volume. The wrist was not able to hold up with that volume of practice, and also the other parts of the body got older and older.”
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