On Thursday, 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal withdrew from the 2023 Roland Garros tournament.
Make no mistake, this is a sad moment for tennis that everyone knew was coming, but it still hurts.
The tiny silver lining is that Nadal’s place in the tournament is going to someone whose career desperately needs a jumpstart.
He is 29-year-old Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Thiem is the 2020 U.S. Open champion and made it to back-to-back French Open finals in 2018 and 2019.
Thiem lost both of those finals to Rafael Nadal.
Comme un symbole, le dernier forfait de Rafael Nadal offre directement une place dans le grand tableau de Roland-Garros 2023 à Dominic Thiem. 🧡🇨🇵 pic.twitter.com/yKNDBRImJf
— Univers Tennis 🎾 (@UniversTennis) May 19, 2023
Thiem Has Struggled In Recent Years
Dominic Thiem was ranked third in the world right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020; his current ranking is 96th.
Though he suffered those two crushing losses to Nadal on Thiem’s favorite clay surface, tennis fans believed the best was yet to come for Thiem’s career.
He then was overcome with injuries and confidence issues and has not been the same player ever since.
After a rough start to the 2023 season, Thiem went back to competing in Challenger events, something that fellow Grand Slam champions Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka chose to do also.
Three Grand Slam champions are in action in Bordeaux Challenger this week 🔥
Who will be the champion? 🏆#StanislasWawrinka #DominicThiem #AndyMurray #Bordeaux #Challenger #Tennis pic.twitter.com/XgD7YTDHzu
— Sportskeeda Tennis (@SK__Tennis) May 15, 2023
He has openly pondered life after tennis.
Conclusion
It really hurts to know that Rafael Nadal will not be defending his title at Roland Garros later in the month.
“The Rocket” Rod Laver summed it up best in his tweet.
“You will be missed at Roland Garros this year @RafaelNadal, the King of Clay always. Your outstanding physical power, fighting spirit and dedication to tennis is unrivaled in the modern era. Rest up, mate. I look forward to seeing you again, on court or off.”
You will be missed at Roland Garros this year @RafaelNadal, the King of Clay always. Your outstanding physical power, fighting spirit and dedication to tennis is unrivalled in the modern era. Rest up, mate. I look forward to seeing you again, on court or off. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/r1bakMtGVR
— Rod Laver (@rodlaver) May 19, 2023
If there was a way that Dominic Thiem could overcome everything he has gone through in the past few years and win the French Open, that would be amazing and strangely fitting.
Nadal, who admitted on Thursday that he will watch some of the French Open on television, would probably like it if that could happen.
It could turn out to be a most unusual passing of the torch.
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