Nearing 30, Dominic Thiem thinks "of a life beyond tennis," but the clay-court star isn't slowing down

WATCH: Thiem showed encouraging signs despite a three-set loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Mutua Madrid Open.

Dominic Thiem was quite familiar with this situation. It was Saturday night at the Mutua Madrid Open. The tournament’s main stadium, dubbed “The Magic Box,” crackled as the unseeded Thiem went toe-to-toe with fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas. There it was, two men who between them had reached six Grand Slam singles finals, pushing one another to all corners of the court. In the end, after two hours and 19 minutes of arduous clay-court tennis, Tsitsipas emerged the victor, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5).

Great as the effort had been for Thiem, it had not occurred on the Saturday he’d once been accustomed to. Between 2014 and 2020, Thiem reached 28 singles finals, winning 17. But the match against Tsitsipas had not come on a semifinal Saturday. It took place in the second round. Ranked as high as No. 3 back in early 2020, Thiem now sits at No. 96.

In lieu of pursuing a wild card into this week's Masters 1000 event in Rome, or playing in its qualifying tournament, Thiem has opted instead to play a pair of Challengers. First, he’s competing in his homeland, seeded first at the Danube Upper Austria Open in Mauthausen. Following that, Thiem will head to the BNP Paribas Primrose in Bordeaux, France.

The arc of Thiem’s recent journey has been rare and difficult. In what now appears a foggy memory, Thiem won the 2020 US Open, an unprecedented pandemic fortnight played in front of no spectators. Thiem’s early 2021 was marred by foot and knee injuries. Though he’d previously reached two finals at Roland Garros, a rusty Thiem lost in the first round to 68th-ranked Pablo Andujar.

The next month, at a grass-court tournament in Mallorca, Thiem retired in the first set of his opening match versus Adrian Mannarino with a wrist injury. The pain was so severe that from June 2021 until late March 2022, Thiem was entirely absent from competitive tennis.

He returned first at a Challenger event in Marbella, Spain, lost in the first round, and then tested positive for COVID-19. Upon recovery, Thiem lost six straight matches, during which time his ranking plummeted to No. 346. But by year’s end, he’d made his way back to No. 102.

Wrist injuries can be particularly troubling. While, of course, other parts of the body propel a player’s strokes, the wrist is right near the point of impact.

“It’s the end of the kinetic chain,” said Jeff Greenwald, sports psychologist and author of The Best Tennis of Your Life. “It’s taking the impact every time. And once you’ve been injured in a certain area, you worry about reinjury.”

“The shots are getting way better,” Thiem said last month in Monte Carlo, where he beat Richard Gasquet and then lost to Holger Rune. “I have the feeling that I can go full power for many, many shots again with the wrist. There is no restriction anymore. Now the goal is to put everything together, because there is way more to tennis, way more things required to play good matches than to just be able to hit full. That's the goal right now.”

Crystal-clear as Thiem is in describing his current state, the more ambiguous topic has long been his approach to scheduling. As players make their way into the rare air of the Top 5, they often streamline their tournament commitments. Roger Federer turned this into an art form. Thiem seemed to never let up, often playing at least 25 tournaments a year. It’s one thing to do that when a great week is a Friday quarterfinal. But when a player generates Thiem’s kind of results, one wonders if that was too much.

I’m constantly thinking of a life beyond tennis. I think that tennis was, for a long time, the only part of my life, which is good in one way but if you’re getting older it’s not good anymore...you need other thoughts in your head, other things to do and the injury time out and tough time to come back helped me in those terms and I’m very happy about it. Dominic Thiem

“It’s hard to give those kind of opinions [about scheduling],” said Mark Kovacs, a longstanding coach and sports science consultant. “There are certain players I describe as the workhorse. They’re built to handle that kind of volume. Unless you’re there every day and monitoring everything, it’s hard to judge.” As examples alongside Thiem, Kovacs cites such Hall of Famers Guillermo Vilas, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt.

What does become clear in the wake of an injury is the need to treat health matters in new ways. “You don’t just address the area of concern and the symptoms,” said Kovacs. “You take care of areas that might not have been addressed.” With Thiem, one can imagine a regimen that focuses not strictly on the wrist, but also the forearm and shoulders, as well as racquet weight and strings.

But time has not been so helpful to Thiem. Even these days, when so many improvements in fitness, training and, lest we forget, compensation, have made it possible for players to compete effectively well into their 30s, a player’s late 20s remain a perfect storm of proficiency, experience and fitness; arguably the prime window for generating fantastic results. Thiem was 26 when he began his US Open title run. He will turn 30 in September.

On the other hand, if these years of frequent doctor visits and rehab came during what might have been prime years for Thiem, he’s recently come to see his journey in a new light. Speaking on the ATP Tennis Radio Podcast this spring, Thiem, who recently announced a Thiem View line of sunglasses, said, “I’m constantly thinking of a life beyond tennis. I think that tennis was, for a long time, the only part of my life, which is good in one way but if you’re getting older it’s not good anymore, you need a life beyond tennis, you need other thoughts in your head, other things to do and the injury time out and tough time to come back helped me in those terms and I’m very happy about it.”

“That gratitude factor could be an important aspect of Thiem going forward,” said Greenwald. “If he can get past this difficult phase and weather this storm, it will give him a real appreciation and perspective that will set the table for good things to happen.”

And given the effectiveness of Thiem’s arsenal, dare one doubt his possibilities?

“The guy has won a Slam,” said Kovacs. “He’s been at the top of the game and can beat all the best players. He’s right in the mix. The question is, can he play his best for multiple matches in a tournament?”

During his prior glory years, one of Thiem’s attributes was the way he conveyed a spirit of relentless commitment, be it body language and posture, to the full-bodied swings that made him exciting to watch. Certainly, Thiem is aware of all the questions that surround his tennis these days. But if past behavior is any indication, count on Thiem to be relentless in the search to answer them.