Google News Dominic Thiem shocks: "I was close to lost every hope"
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In some cases, like that of Dominic Thiem, achieving the maximum goal can even be harmful. The Austrian has experienced very difficult moments since the day after his Grand Slam victory at the 2020 US Open, to the point that even a bad event like the very long wrist injury, which kept him out for seven months, represented a sort of relief, as he was able to get out of the frenzy of the Atp Tour.
Realizing the dream of a lifetime can be a double-edged sword for a sports professional, but not only. Reaching the pinnacle of one's career can be relatively easy, the difficult thing then becomes managing all the wave of sensations and emotions that arise starting from the following day.
Thiem explained during an interview grantet to the Roland Garros official website: "After the triumph at the US Open 2020 I had serious problems finding the necessary motivation. I felt completely drained, it was as if the achievement of something I had chased for so long made vanish the meaning of tennis life.
It's hard to admit it, but I saw the injury as a good opportunity to take a break from tennis and reconcile with it. It was almost a relief to know that I would have six or seven weeks to completely switch off and then come back with enthusiasm."
Thiem was one step away from retiring
An injury as severe as the one suffered by Dominic Thiem could affect him from a psychological point of view and so it was.
As told by the former world number 3, in fact, in the first official matches played after the stoppage, he was even afraid to hit the ball for fear of a relapse: "For a long time I was afraid of hitting the ball, I couldn't get past the fear of a relapse of the injury.
For most of 2022, I was thinking about whether I would get hurt again when I hit the ball and it's very difficult like that." Thiem who, having fallen into a vortex from which he seemed unable to get out, admitted he was closer to withdraw than you can imagine: "I came very close to completely losing hope, indeed, on a superficial level I would say that I have lost it.
But inside of me I kept a little light, an inner fire that made me believe in myself and made me want to try harder. If I hadn't heard that, I would have retired. There have been very tough moments, but I've always had the feeling that I still have something to offer the world of tennis and that I want to try and get it out."
