NEW YORK (AP) — Dominic Thiem never heard the unmistakable sounds of the New York crowd when he won the U.S. Open for his lone Grand Slam title.
Arthur Ashe Stadium was nearly empty for his historic comeback on that 2020 night, the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the tournament to be played without fans.
So even though his Grand Slam career ended Monday with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 first-round loss to No. 13 seed Ben Shelton, Thiem said the match was an important moment for him, allowing him to play before a packed house on the court where he had the biggest victory of his career.
“To say thank you to all of you,” Thiem told the fans, “and to make the time up for what we missed four years ago.”
Thiem, who will turn 31 next week, has battled wrist injuries in recent years and had previously announced this would be his final season. He was given a wild card by the U.S. Tennis Association into the tournament for what became just his 10th match of the season.
Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in the 2020 final, winning a fifth-set tiebreaker to become the first man to win the U.S. Open after losing the first two sets since 1949. That was already Thiem's fourth Grand Slam final and there was no reason to think there wouldn't be more.
The Austrian had reached No. 3 in the ATP rankings that March after getting to the Australian Open final, and the year ended with him inside the top 10 for a fifth straight season. He made two French Open finals before that.
But Thiem injured his right wrist in June 2021 and he could never regain the form or the strength on his forehand that had allowed him to go 9-3 against the Big Three of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
The forehand, Thiem said, “never came back like it was before.”
He certainly lacks the power of Shelton, who rode his explosive left-handed serve all the way to the 2023 U.S. Open semifinals — which followed a second-round victory over Thiem.
They shared a nice exchange at the net before Shelton encouraged to the crowd to show its appreciation for Thiem.
“Obviously I have been out here a couple years now, and he’s kind of been in and out playing tournaments and not playing tournaments,” Shelton said. “So you hate to see a guy like that, such a nice guy, great player, go through the injuries and deal with all that he’s dealt with.
"But I think if I learn anything from him, it’s that this is a game that is unforgiving. Things can change quick. You can be at the top of the game, and your body doesn’t hold up or some freak accident happens. Injuries happen all the time. So tennis isn’t forever. I think that’s one thing to learn and take away. Obviously still had a career that a lot of people dream about.”
Thiem was presented with a framed collage of photos of himself in action at the U.S. Open.
He said he will play two more events before retiring, ending his career at the ATP's stop in Vienna in October. Thiem said he will stay involved somehow in tennis, and already has an academy in Austria. And though he said he's at peace with his plan to retire, he knows there's a part of tennis he won't be able to replace.
“I think that the thing I will miss the most is, like, this feeling after winning a great match. It’s not really comparable to anything else,” Thiem said. "You don’t really get this feeling, I mean, in my case, in life outside of tennis, because it’s a real high. It’s like being on drugs a little bit, I guess.
“I mean, I know that probably this feeling is not coming back again, so this is for sure also the one I’m going to miss the most.”
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Dominic Thiem, of Austria, reacts after losing a point to Ben Shelton, of the United States, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Dominic Thiem, of Austria, is presented with a collage of photos of his play at the U.S. Open over the years after losing to Ben Shelton, of the United States, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Dominic Thiem, of Austria, serves to Ben Shelton, of the United States, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Dominic Thiem, of Austria, watches highlights of his play over the years at the U.S. Open after losing to Ben Shelton, of the United States, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job at at Boeing factories near Seattle and elsewhere early Friday after union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike.
Boeing is just the latest business to grapple with union workers over issues including wages and benefits like health care.
Here's a look at some recent company negotiations with their unions.
Late last year the United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified new contracts with Ford and Stellantis, along with a similar deal with General Motors, that would raise pay across the industry and force automakers to absorb higher costs.
The agreements, which run through April 2028, ended contentious talks that began in the summer of 2022 and led to six-week-long strikes at all three automakers.
The new contract agreements were widely seen as a victory for the UAW. The companies agreed to dramatically raise pay for top-scale assembly plant workers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would translate into 33% wage gains.
Top assembly plant workers were to receive immediate 11% raises and would earn roughly $42 an hour when the contracts expire in April of 2028.
Under the agreements, the automakers also ended many of the multiple tiers of wages they had used to pay different workers. They also agreed in principle to bring new electric-vehicle battery plants into the national union contract.
UPS workers that are members of the Teamsters union approved a tentative contract with the package delivery company last year. The run up to the approval was not smooth though, with contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.
After negotiations broke down in early July 2023, Atlanta-based UPS reached a tentative contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before an Aug. 1 deadline.
At the time the tentative agreement was struck, full- and part-time union workers were set to get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more in total by the end of the five-year contract. Starting hourly pay for part-time employees also got bumped up to $21, but some workers said that fell short of their expectations.
UPS said at the time that by the end of the new contract, the average UPS full-time driver would make about $170,000 annually in pay and benefits. It was not clear how much of that figure benefits accounted for.
As part of the deal, the delivery company also agreed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a full holiday, end forced overtime on drivers’ days off and stop using driver-facing cameras in cabs, among a host of other issues. It eliminated a two-tier wage system for drivers and tentative deals on safety issues were also reached, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning.
Earlier this month video game performers reached agreements with 80 individual games that have signed interim or tiered budget agreements with the performers’ union and accepted the artificial intelligence provisions they have been seeking.
The performers had been striking for over a month.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began striking in July after negotiations with game industry giants that began more than a year and a half ago came to a halt over AI protections.
The interim agreement secures wage improvements, protections around “exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence and safety precautions that account for the strain of physical performances, as well as vocal stress. The tiered budget agreement aims to make working with union talent more feasible for independent game developers or smaller-budget projects while also providing performers the protections under the interim agreement.
Last month thousands of hospitality union workers on the Las Vegas Strip reached a tentative deal with the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, a first for employees at the sprawling Italian-inspired complex that opened 25 years ago.
The Culinary Workers Union announced on the social platform X that the deal came together after a year of negotiations. It covers over 4,000 hotel and casino workers, from housekeepers and cocktail servers to bartenders and porters.
Bethany Khan, a union spokesperson, said the deal mirrors the major wins secured in recent contracts awarded to 40,000 hospitality workers at 18 Strip properties owned or operated by casino giants MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts.
Those wins included a 32% pay increase over five years, housekeeping workload reductions and improved job security amid advancements in technology and artificial intelligence.
The bump in pay under those contracts will amount to an average $35 hourly wage by the end of the contracts, according to the union. Workers at these properties were making about $26 hourly with benefits before winning their latest contracts in November.
Unions representing 85,000 health care workers reached a tentative agreement with industry giant Kaiser Permanente in October 2023 following a strike over wages and staffing levels.
The deal included setting minimum hourly wages at $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers would also see a 21% wage increase over four years.
The lead up to the tentative agreement included a three-day strike involving 75,000 workers in multiple states.
The tentative agreement also included protective terms around subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the current workforce and address a staffing crisis.
Hollywood’s actors voted to ratify a deal with studios in December 2023 that ended their strike after nearly four months, bringing an official finish to a labor strife that shook the entertainment industry for most of last year.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved a three-year contract.
Control over the use of artificial intelligence was the most hard-fought issue in the long, methodical negotiations. The contract called for a 7% general pay increase with further hikes coming in the second and third years of the deal.
The agreement also included a hard-won provision that temporarily derailed talks: the creation of a fund to pay performers for future viewings of their work on streaming services, in addition to traditional residuals paid for the showing of movies or series.
Boeing Machinists Union members Steven Wilson, left, Dave Hendrickson, center,, and Mark Erickson, right, wave to passing traffic while on the picket line at the Renton assembly plant, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
