‘We wish him all the best’: Vienna fans pay tribute to retiring Thiem
p He may have retired at the relatively premature age of 31, but Dominic Thiem will nonetheless leave behind a significant legacy after hanging up his racquet. /p
p Nowhere is that clearer than in Vienna, where the home favourite on Tuesday ended his pro career after falling to a first-round defeat against Luciano Darderi at the Erste Bank Open. Thiem, a former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings and 17-time tour-level champion, was roared on by his home fans for one final, emotional effort at his home ATP 500. /p
p ldquo;He means a lot,rdquo; Thiem fan Petra Houml;llerl told ATPTour.com when asked what the 2020 US Open champion has done for Austrian tennis. ldquo;He was one of the best, and along with Thomas Muster he is our hero. For our kids and for us, so we are a little bit lost nowhellip; It was his last match, so we supported him and trusted him. We wish him all the best.rdquo; /p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr"The fans love Domi and Domi loves the fans ????a href="https://twitter.com/ErsteBankOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ErsteBankOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ErsteBankOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ErsteBankOpen/a a href="https://t.co/u9va2HXHvM"pic.twitter.com/u9va2HXHvM/a/p
mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1848392560416379181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 21, 2024/a/blockquote
script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
p Daniela and her young son Niklas, who were also at the Wiener Stadthalle for Tuesdayrsquo;s match, also spoke specifically about Thiemrsquo;s influence on young people. /p
p ldquo;I think he is very important,rdquo; explained Daniela. He is an idol, especially for the younger ones. I am from the former generation that loved Thomas Muster, but for my son, his idol is Dominic Thiem.rdquo; /p
p Thiem may be retiring as a superstar of Austrian sport, but many of his fans have been following him since he emerged as a talented teenager. They see the same qualities in the 31-year-old as they did all those years ago. /p
p ldquo;Irsquo;ve seen him play many times because my eldest daughter was a ballkid at the Erste Bank Open from the age of eight,rdquo; recalled Petra Gassner. ldquo;Now she is 21 and still volunteers here. We followed Thiem on his journey, from when he was 16 until now. He is a very nice and gentle person. /p
p ldquo;I liked his character and how he treated other people and engaged with them. Itrsquo;s a little bit sad that his career is ending now when he is 31, but it goes this way.rdquo;/p
pimg alt="Dominic Thiem Fans" style="width: 100%;" src="/-/media/images/news/2024/10/22/17/10/thiem-vienna-2024-fans-signs.jpg" /br /
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Fans in Vienna came out in force to support Austrian tennis icon Thiem in his final pro event. Photo Credit: e-motion/Sascha Feuster/sup/sub/em/p
p Thiem had plenty of success on home soil throughout his career. In 2019, he triumphed at both the clay-court ATP 250 in Kitzbuuml;hel and in Vienna. The 31-year-old is clear on the role his home supporters played in such successes. /p
p ldquo;They always gave me such a nice atmosphere,rdquo; Thiem told ATPTour.com. ldquo;The Austrian fans were always supporting me so nicely, which was amazing. I always loved to play in front of them. /p
p ldquo;What I cannot underestimate is that I think I won quite a lot of matches only with their help. I think there were many close matches which would never have gone my way without the fans in Austria.rdquo; /p
p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p