ATP: Dominic Thiem in exquisite company
Dominic Thiem reached third place in the ATP world rankings for the first time a few days ago. Outstanding performance in the days of Novak Djokovic , Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer .
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Mar 17, 2020, 12:55 pm
In order to demonstrate the sheer unbelievable dominance of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer over the past decade (and even a little longer), one statistic is basically enough: since 2009 Dominic Thiem is only the ninth player who has managed to to achieve a place in the top three in the ATP world rankings for at least one week.
The first professional to do this was Andy Murray in 2009, whom many see as part of the Big Four in a package with Djokovic / Nadal / Federer. What is right in terms of constancy, it goes for Grand Slam titles Murray with his three (once the US Open, twice Wimbledon) is on par with Stan Wawrinka (once Australian Open, French Open and US Open).
Thiem is aiming for the third final in Roland Garros
Two other major champions were also able to break into the phalanx of legends, but only several years after their big coup. Juan Martin del Potro, for example, won the US Open in 2009 - and only made it into the top three for the first time in summer 2018. Marin Cilic , 2014 US Open champion, only finished third in January 2018 after failing Roger Federer in the Australian Open final.
Dominic Thiem, who, like most other tennis professionals, is currently unable to prepare for a specific tennis match due to the tense situation around the world, is still known to be waiting for his first victory in a Grand Slam tournament. The Lower Austrian had three chances, Thiem was the closest to it a few weeks ago in the Melbourne final when he gave up a 2-1 lead against Djokovic. Nobody has yet dared to judge whether Thiem will have the chance to enter Roland Garros' finals for the third time in a row in 2020.
David Ferrer, Milos Raonic, Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov finally complete the list of top three players since 2009. The latter each won the title at the ATP Finals in London, but like Thiem and Raonic are still waiting for the big coup. David Ferrer is known to have finally given up on these ambitions last year. The Spaniard now operates as the tournament director of the ATP Tour 500 event in Barcelona - and has to cope with the cancellation of the event in the first year.
Debutants in the top three since 2009
| date | player | Grand Slam title | ATP finals title |
| May 2009 | Andy Murray | 3rd | 1 |
| July 2013 | David Ferrer | 0 | 0 |
| January 2014 | Stan Wawrinka | 3rd | 0 |
| November 2016 | Milos Raonic | 0 | 0 |
| November 2017 | Alexander Zverev | 0 | 1 |
| November 2017 | Grigor Dimitrov | 0 | 1 |
| January 2018 | Marin Cilic | 1 | 0 |
| August 2018 | Juan Martin del Potro | 1 | 0 |
| March 2020 | Dominic Thiem | 0 | 0 |