For the first time since March 3, 2014, the now 28-year-old from Lower Austria, who was already in third place, will no longer appear in this group after his almost ten-month injury break on May 9. This means that there are no longer any Austrians in the top 100. That hasn’t happened in over 36 years.
Most recently, on April 28, 1986, Thomas Muster was the best Austrian in 119th place and was therefore outside the top hundred male tennis professionals. That was before Muster’s rise to #1 had begun. After that, in addition to his successes, Austrians were always to be found, at least in this circle: Among them Jürgen Melzer (8th/best placement), Gilbert Schaller (17th), Horst Skoff (18th), Stefan Koubek (20th), Alexander Antonitsch (40th .), Andreas Haider-Maurer (47th). A total of 18 ÖTV gentlemen, before the times of Muster and Co. by the way Peter Feigl (40./1979) and Hans Kary (54./1976), were in the top 100 so far.
For Thiem, who had a “protected ranking” (protected placement) of sixth place at the time of the injury in June 2021, 360 points from the Madrid semifinals last year are out of the ranking. He finds himself only in a place around 160. For the time being, this is only a psychological factor. Thiem will save a few more tournaments with this status and probably also with wildcards thanks to his successes (US Open winner 2020, four-time major finalist) in the qualifications. However, he naturally has very strong opponents from round one because he is not seeded. Not even at the Sandplatz Grand Slam tournament from May 22nd in Paris. There, where he has four semifinals and two finals to book.
For women, Austria has not had a player in the top 100 for more than five years. Barbara Haas, who used to be highly regarded, achieved her best ranking so far in February 2020 with rank 133 and recently fell outside the top 250 due to injuries. Julia Grabher, who, thanks to an improved form curve, set her previous record last February with place 148, fueled hope. The “golden” times à la Barbara Schett (ex number 7), Barbara Paulus (10th), Judith Wiesner (12th), Sybille Bammer (19th), Tamira Paszek (26th) or Sylvia Plischke (27th) are long gone.
Source: Nachrichten
