This year hasn't been that great for Dominic Thiem, but several of his ATP colleagues have backed him to return to the top in the future.
Thiem's career is far from over even though he turned 30 earlier this year. He's got a couple of more years to go and while his last two seasons have been anything but great, the Austrian is motivated to reclaim his former level.
The last good season Thiem had was the 2020 season, winning 50 matches that year. The following year was pretty poor with the wrist injury, and he totalled only 19 matches, winning 9 of them. 2021 was okay, albeit far from his best level at 23-21, and this year hasn't been much better, with a 24-29 record.
His most recent match was against Tsitsipas at the Vienna Open, a match where he tried his best but ultimately was beaten by Tsitsipas. Despite that, the Greek had some encouraging words for Thiem, believing him good enough to return to his former level.
He hit the balls very well, moved well, and let me run. I had to fight for every point, it wasn't easy. The next year will be better for him than this one.
His good friend Alexander Zverev has similar thoughts as he too played Thiem this year, although it happened months ago at the Halle Open. Even then, Zverev praised Thiem, believing that he just needs to stick with what he's doing and things will go well.
In my opinion, he has to beat really big players once or twice again, then it can happen again quickly. He's good enough to get back up.
It hasn't worked out like that yet however Thiem won't give up as easily. He will give it his all and perhaps finally next year things work out how he wants them.
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