Dominic Thiem, who retired from tennis at the age of 30, is making a comeback. But in football

Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem, who retired from tennis in 2024, has decided to return to competitive sports. No, he won’t be returning to Arthur Ashe Stadium this time. Instead, a former world number three takes to the football field in Austria’s lower leagues.

The move marks an interesting second chapter for the 32-year-old, whose promising tennis career has come to an emotional close due to persistent injury problems. File photo of Dominic Thiem. (x)

Thiem officially called time on his professional tennis career at the end of the 2024 season and played his final Grand Slam match at Flushing Meadows, where he achieved his peak success. After winning the 2020 US Open title, a serious wrist injury suffered in 2021 sidelined him for months and ultimately prevented him from regaining his peak form.

Speaking after his first-round exit to Ben Shelton at the 2024 US Open, Thiem admitted he was at peace with his decision to withdraw.

“I’ve struggled a lot in recent years, especially not being able to get back to my level, but when I made the decision in March this year, I was happy about it,” Thiem said at the time. “I’ve loved playing on tour, but I’ve also always enjoyed being home and having a bit of a normal life. The main reason I’m retiring quite young is the bad luck with the wrist injury, but I don’t really have any regrets.”

That desire for a “normal life” combined with a lifelong love of football has now brought him to the grass pitch of Lower Austria.

According to reports, Thiem has officially registered with Badener AC, an amateur club competing in the eighth division of Austrian football. His transition was not completely out of the blue. After retiring in the ATP, he played 10 competitive matches and scored a goal for his home club SC Lichtenwrth before deciding to transfer to Badener AC through a mutual friend.

Despite his status as a Grand Slam champion and former world number three, Thiem will not be afforded the privileges of a superstar in the dressing room. Badener AC management confirmed to local newspaper NN that while they are thrilled to have a world-class athlete on their roster, the former tennis star will have to fight for a place in the starting XI just like everyone else.

“Since training hasn’t started yet, I can’t say much about the new signings. We heard that he’s also a good football player,” Petrovič says. However, BAC has no doubts about the transfer itself: “He has a friend at the club and I expect him to actually play here.”

For Thiem, who has spent more than a decade performing under intense pressure in front of tens of thousands of fans, swapping packed stadiums for local club grounds offers the perfect outlet: keeping his competitive fire alive, purely for the love of the game.

THIEM’S LAST TENNIS MATCH

Dominic Thiem officially closed the curtains on his professional tennis career on 22 October 2024 after defeating Italian Luciano Darderi in straight sets in the first round of the Vienna Open. Playing in front of a passionate home crowd in Vienna’s Stadthalle, the 31-year-old Austrian fell 6-7 (6), 2-6 in a match that lasted 91 minutes.

Thiem got off to a promising start in his final appearance and soon raced to a 4-2 lead in the opening set. He even earned a set point during the tiebreak, but the 22-year-old Darderi saved him before claiming a hard-fought 59-minute opening set. As the match progressed, the former world No. 3 ran out of steam, allowing world No. 42 Darderi to dominate the second set with two breaks of serve to seal the win.

The defeat marked the 563rd and final match of a promising career that has been hampered in recent years by a lingering wrist injury from 2021. After the match, Thiem received a standing ovation from nearly 10,000 fans as he placed his racket in a glass case on the court.

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Issued by:

Kingshuk Kusari

Published on:

Jul 25, 2026 09:13 IST