Defending champion Dominic Thiem pulled out of US Open due to a wrist injury
Defending champion Dominic Thiem withdrew from the US Open, and he will miss the rest of the year due to a right wrist injury.
Thiem suffered the injury in June at the Mallorca Open and was also forced to skip the grasscourt major at Wimbledon. The pain returned last week after he hit a ball during training.
The World No 6-ranked Thiem made the announcement in a social media post, and a statement from his management company described the injury as a detachment of the posterior sheath of the ulnar side of the right wrist.
“The past six months, I’ve been following the medical advice, wearing the wrist splint, doing exercise to stay in shape… but then last week I hit a ball during training and started to feel some pain again,” said the 27-year-old.
“After some tests, they (the doctors) said my wrist needs more time, so we’ve all agreed on being conservative and to give my wrist some time to recover… It has been a tough decision but I know this is what I have to do.
This is the second straight year that the defending champion at Flushing Meadows has withdrawn from the event after Rafa Nadal skipped the 2020 edition due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Thiem won his first major title last year at Flushing Meadows, beating Alexander Zverev by becoming the first player to come from two sets down in the US Open final since Pancho Gonzales in 1949.
The US Open runs from August 30 to September 12.
