Dominic Thiem, denied wildcard for main draw, makes emotional exit from final French Open of his career in the qualifiers

Dominic Thiem bid an emotional farewell to the French Open with a second-round loss in the qualification rounds of the 2024 edition, falling in straight sets to Otto Virtanen on Wednesday. The Austrian was earlier denied a wildcard to enter the main draw of the tournament directly, despite being a two-time finalist at the event.

Following his 6-2, 7-5 loss, the former US Open champion was honored with a short ceremony, where he was awarded a commemorative plaque by French Open director Amelie Mauresmo.

The trophy appeared to be a cross-section of the Roland Garros court, with layers of stone and gravel giving rise to a fine surface of clay on top. Thiem also addressed the crowd, thanking them for the memories and sharing a great relationship with him.

"I slowly built up a great relationship with the tournament, a relationship with all of you guys, with all fans. I had so many great results, so many great memories and experiences, here on the courts. This was the Grand Slam with my best results, so I really enjoyed every single year of it. Thank you so much for all the memories," Thiem said.

This was the first time since 2014 that Thiem was participating in the qualifying rounds of a Grand Slam. In the first round, he beat Franco Agamenone in three sets.

Earlier this month, the former World No. 3 made the announcement that 2024 was to be his final year on the ATP Tour, saying that he came to the conclusion after a lot of deliberation.

"The season 2024 is going to be my last one. I'm going to finish my career at the end of this season and there are some reasons behind it. Firstly of course, my wrist, it's not exactly the way it should be and it's not exactly the way how I want it. The second reason is my inner feeling. I was thinking about this decision for a very long time, I was thinking very carefully about it," Thiem said.

"At the end, I came to the conclusion that this decision to end my career at the end of this season is the only right one. I am very happy with it," he added.

When the wildcards for Roland Garros were announced, many expected Thiem, a two-time former finalist, to be part of the pack. Instead, six of the eight wildcard spots went to Frenchmen, with the other two going to an Aussie (Adam Walton) and an American (Nicolas Moreno de Alboran).

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Dominic Thiem commented on lack of main draw wildcard at French Open 2024

Dominic Thiem

Dominic Thiem himself addressed the wildcard controversy following his first-round qualification win at the 2024 French Open. The Austrian was all-class, dismissing any hard feelings about being denied a chance to compete in the main draw.

Instead, the former US Open champion maintained that he didn't deserve it in the first place, and that he was happy enough with all the previous times he got to compete in the main draw at Roland Garros.

"Honestly I had a long time to be in a good ranking. I had enough tournaments and enough time to climb up the ranking and I didn’t do it, so I kind of didn’t deserve it and that’s fine. I had 10 main draw appearances in the last years so that’s more than enough," Dominic Thiem said.

Thiem, in both his final appearances at the French Open (in 10 main draw appearances), lost to Rafael Nadal in the summit clash - falling in straight sets in 2018 and in four sets the next year.