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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]I assume I am not alone in wondering if Dominic Thiem was totally, tragically cooked. In the middle of his prime, leaving lots of questions unanswered. Not long ago, Thiem was shaping up to be a multi-major threat: 2020 US Open champ, most powerful hitter on the ATP, that sole twentysomething who could regularly tangle with the Big Three and come away with a sterling 16–18 record. Then came a period of self-described mental burnout, followed by a right-wrist injury that kept him out of competition for nine months. Last we checked on the 28-year-old Austrian, he was playing his first matches in nearly a year a few months ago, and losing: a first-round match at the Marbella Challenger, and lost his first-round match at Belgrade. While it was easy to chalk those two up to rust, it became a little harder to overlook the five consecutive losses that followed.