Former Champion Thiem Playing Last Tournament
The US Open starts today at Flushing Meadows, with defending Women’s singles champion Coco Gauff and last year’s finalist Aryna Sabalenka both in first-round action. On the men’s side, defending champion Novak Djokovic will be under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium. Carlos Alcaraz will play his first-round match on Tuesday.
But, the biggest story of the first round is the match between last year’s Cinderella, American semi-finalist Ben Shelton and Dominic Thiem. Thiem, winner of the 2020 US Open, has announced that this tournament will be the last grand slam of his career. Thiem has been hampered by a wrist injury suffered in 2021 and has decided to retire from the game. Thiem had some great battles against legends like Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokovic and admitted that competing against those all-time greats contributed to his early retirement. “It took a toll, especially as a mere mortal trying to compete with the sport’s three demigods,” Thiem told The Athletic. “That contributed to the injury, definitely. I was competing with the three greatest of all time. That was intense.” Thiem went a very respectable 16-19 against the Big Three.
Shelton is excited to face Thiem. “Yeah, I think it definitely has some hype for a first-round match,” Ben Shelton said. “I love playing in those big type-of-moment matches.”
