"What is even happening? Shame on you clowns" - Tennis fans fuming after Dominic Thiem denied wildcard for Paris Masters main draw

For the first time since 2019, Dominic Thiem will be making a return to the Paris Masters, albeit not in the manner he would have hoped for. The Austrian, fresh on his comeback trail this year, has been handed a wildcard to the qualification rounds, alongside France's very own Hugo Gaston, Quentin Halys and Ugo Humbert.

Tennis fans on social media, however, were not happy with the arrangement, fuming at why a former Grand Slam champion has to go through the qualifiers instead of getting a wildcard to the main draw. The main draw wildcard spots have all gone to Frenchmen as well, with Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, Arthur Rinderknech and Gilles Simon grabbing the four spots.

One user on Twitter opined that it was "disrespectful" to ask Thiem to play in the qualifiers, wondering why the French Tennis Federation (FFT) did not include another wildcard to give the former World No. 3 a berth in the main draw.

"Wholly disrespectful imo, especially how Domi’s been playing. To my knowledge there’s no WC limit so I also don’t understand why Domi and Stan had to use PRs for Vienna and Basel respectively."

Another fan expressed a similar sentiment, tweeting:

"What is even happening? Give [Dominic Thiem] a wildcard for main draw!!"

One user went one step further and called the FFT officials "clowns," adding that they might as well take back the qualification wild card from Thiem, as this was even more disrespectful to him.

"Shame on you Paris Masters clowns, you gave domi wildcard for qualifications. You should keep it with yourself, Dominic Thiem doesn't need this, shame on you."

Here are a few more reactions from fans:

Dominic Thiem takes on Daniil Medvedev in the second round of the Vienna Open

Dominic Thiem takes on Daniil Medvedev up next in Vienna

Dominic Thiem is currently playing in the Vienna Open, where he scored a stunning comeback victory over Tommy Paul in three sets in the first round. In the next match, the Austrian will lock horns with former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev after the Russian downed Nikoloz Basilashvili in straight sets in his opener.

Thiem leads the head-to-head against the top seed 3-2, with Medvedev winning their most recent encounter in the final of the 2020 ATP Tour Finals. A victory against Daniil Medvedev would pit the former US Open winner against either sixth seed Jannik Sinner or Francisco Cerundolo in the quarterfinals, while third seed Andrey Rublev is most likely to be the semifinal opponent.

Meanwhile, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas remains the favorite to reach the summit clash from the bottom half of the draw.