"They are really going to be at the top": Dominic Thiem names two youngsters he can watch 'every week'

Former world number three Dominic Thiem has named two youngsters he ‘love to watch’ in men’s tennis. The Austrian tennis star surprisingly decided to retire at the age of 31, largely because he could not reclaim his form after suffering a serious wrist injury that kept him out of action for nearly 12 months.

Thiem was once regarded as one of the players to take the reigns from the ‘Big Three’ in men’s tennis, specially when he lifted the US Open back in 2020 after beating current world number two Germany’s Alexander Zverev in a five-set thriller with a score of 2–6, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6. Thiem’s last appearance was on home soil, where he lost to Luciano Darderi in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2 in October last year.

Thiem has been recently quoted in a report by Tennis.com, where he named two youngsters he loves to watch. The former US Open champion stated that he loves to watch Brazil’s Joao Fonseca and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik and that he could watch them ‘every week’. “Mensik and Fonseca are amazing,” he said. “I love to watch them. They already made it. There is no question they are really going to be at the top. I could watch them every week on the TV, but it’s also interesting to watch somebody for the first time,”

Both youngsters have produced some incredible performances in recent times. Fonseca, who lifted the ATP Next Gen title last year as well, won the Argentina Open this year after beating local favourite Francisco Cerundolo in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 7-6. On the other hand, Mensik won an even bigger prize after beating Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6 to lift the Miami Open title.