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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Not long ago, the clay season belonged to Dominic Thiem. Okay, that’s blasphemy: It belonged to Rafa, but the king gave him a little slice of his domain to rule over, a little title here and there. Thiem looked qualified to inherit it all. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t believe in his game at first, but over time he honed his blunt power into something sharper and developed the stamina to sustain his physically torturous style. Between 2016 and 2019, he emerged as Rafa’s most consistent threat on the surface, dutifully beating him once a year. For all that toil, he somehow never came away with a clay Masters trophy—though you should certainly get an honorary medal for clearing out the king for someone else to title on clay. Thiem also set up a recurring appointment with Rafa in the final of Roland-Garros. Upgrading that runner-up trophy to the winner’s seemed like a question of when, not if. But then came injuries. Not long after Thiem got his first major title at the US Open, his body let him down in a number of ways, the worst of which was a right wrist injury requiring surgery and an early shutdown of his 2021 season.[vc_empty_space height="15px"][vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]