Dominic Thiem claims he is ‘not healthy’ as he discusses tennis injury problems

Dominic Thiem has claimed the way tennis players play the sport is “not healthy” as he spoke about dealing with a long-term injury problem in the final seasons of his career.

Former world No. 3 and US Open champion Thiem retired from tennis this week at the Vienna Open, just four years after winning his only Grand Slam title in New York.

The Austrian won 17 career titles and reached a further 12 finals – including three major finals – but never fully recovered from a serious wrist injury sustained in Mallorca in June 2021.

At just 31 years old, Thiem is retiring relatively young for the modern game; Andy Murray was 37 when he retired in August and Rafael Nadal is leaving the sport at 38.

In conversation with The GuardianThe 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 exercise is not healthy and at some point one or more parts of the body fail.

“You can see it with almost every player; there is no player who gets through his career without injury. That’s just the nature of professional sports. And in my case it was the wrist.

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“That’s not really surprising because I obviously put a lot of strain on the wrist, especially on the forehand, and one of my most important aspects was to get a little more acceleration with the wrist in the final moments before hitting the ball.

“I’ve probably done this a million times, and at some point the doctor said so. The wrist became a little too weak and then it broke. I never had the same feeling after that.”

At the peak of his career, Thiem was known for his intense playing style – and his busy schedule.

And he admitted his wrist injury had affected his ability to perform to his previous physical abilities on the pitch, which ultimately led to his exit from the game.

“That’s how I grew up, that style of training with a lot of intensity and really 100% effort on every single shot,” he added.

“It was very physically demanding. And also, from a young age, I got used to practicing on a large scale, like three or four hours at a time, or three hours twice [a day].

“It’s been so difficult to keep up with it the last few years [high] Volume. The wrist could no longer withstand this strain and the other parts of the body were also getting older and older.”

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