Dominic Thiem’s tennis career is over after the Austrian lost to Luciano Darderi 7-6(6) 6-2 in Vienna.
The former US Open champion made a positive start to the match in front of a red-hot crowd as he took an early break for a 3-2 lead.
However Darderi grew into the match as he played some sizzling returning and comfortably levelled the opening set at 4-4.
Both players were efficient on serve as the opening set went to a tiebreak as Thiem played an aggressive first set.
Thiem got off to the best possible start by taking a 1-0 lead before creating set point at 6-5 with an expectant crowd ready to roar.
However the Italian won three points in a row to seal a 59 minute opening set to break Austrian hearts.
That took the sting out of the match as Thiem ran out of gas in the second set committing loads of unforced errors.
Breaks in the first and fifth games secured the vital blow for the Italian as Thiem’s illustrious career ended.
Thiem was a four-time Grand Slam finalist and beat some of the biggest names the sport has to offer and claimed his only Grand Slam in 2020 at the US Open.
Reflecting on his career earlier in the week Thiem offered no regrets as he looks ahead to a bright future off the court, “When I think back on my career, the main emotions are really big gratitude for everything I was able to experience,” Thiem told the ATP website.
“I was very lucky to stay healthy [most of] the time to be able to realise basically all my dreams. And yeah, I was never expecting a career like that when I was young. All I wanted was to be a professional tennis player, whatever comes with it.
“The privilege of playing in the same era, like the Big Three, like the Big Four, I’m very happy about it. I’m really proud and happy that I was in the same era like them.
“The thing I will miss the most is, like, this feeling after winning a great match, it’s not really comparable to anything else. Like, you don’t really get this feeling, I mean, in my case, in life outside of tennis, because it’s, like, a real high. It’s like being on drugs a little bit, I guess.
“I mean, I know that probably this feeling is not coming back again, so this is for sure [what] I’m going to miss the most.”
