Dominic Thiem’s roller-coaster season has taken another turn after he was forced to withdraw from his match at the Mallorca Open due to an injury he sustained whilst playing.
The world No.5 was leading France’s Adrian Mannarino 5-2 in his first round match before he stopped the proceedings. Thiem called for a trainer after hearing what he described as a ‘crack’ in his wrist. Despite having treatment on court the 27-year-old decided not to play any further to minimise the risk of worsening the injury and will undergo an MRI to identify the exact problem.
Alex Stober, who is Thiem’s physio, admits that any kind of crack is never a good sign but says it is too early to speculate. Speaking to the Krone newspaper on Tuesday, he said he hopes the issue is just a slight ‘twist’ of the wrist.
“At the moment one can only guess. He sustained a wrist injury, a kind of twist,” said Stober.
“You don’t know anything else until later.’
“Cracking is never a good sign. Let’s hope it was just a twist in the wrist, with the carpal bone maybe a slight capsule injury.”
The injury setback comes less than a week before Wimbledon begins. Thiem hasn’t missed a main draw at the tournament since 2013 but has only reached the fourth round once in six attempts. The past two editions he has lost in the first round.
Thiem has experienced a lacklustre 2021 so far where he has failed to win back-to-back matches five out of his six most recent tournaments played. The only exception was at the Madrid Open where he reached the semi-finals. The Austrian took a wildcard into Mallorca this week after losing in the first round of the French Open for the first time in his career.
“Little by little I am improving and now I am back to normal. I think my problem this year is that I did not train enough at the beginning of the year, and I also had several problems with injuries,” Thiem told reporters earlier this week.
The Grand Slam champion recently announced that he will not be playing at the Olympics Games because ‘he doesn’t feel ready to play his best.’ Instead he said that his goal is to prepare as best as he can for his title defence at the US Open later this year.
Thiem has won 17 ATP titles and earned more than $28M in prize money so far in his career.
