Dominic Thiem's dizzying heights on grass courts have gradually come to an end at this year's Halle Open in the semi-final stage, following a 6-3, 6-4 defeat against 32-year-old Florian Mayer, ranked over 150 places below the Austrian in the world rankings. Mayer, who went onto win the final itself in a tense encounter against Alexander Zverev, performed well all week and used his momentum to gain a fast start against Thiem - one that the world number 7 struggled to recover from.
Thiem public about his fatigue-laden display
As quoted by Thiem himself on his official Facebook page, he admitted his game was "pretty poor" as his efforts from the last few weeks "got noticeable" and as a result, he was "a little bit stiff."
Despite this though, he was gracious in defeat to Mayer, saying that the German did play well and ultimately deserved to win. Thiem was impressive at this year's French Open and managed to achieve his maiden Grand Slam semi-final, before losing to eventual winner Novak Djokovic.
Then, he managed to beat Roger Federer - having recovered well from two match points down. As a result, he's cemented his place in history as only the 29th player in Open Era history to win three titles on three different surfaces in the same year.
Time to rest and recover with tournaments on the horizon
Thiem will hope he can get back to 100% with the Nottingham Open starting on Monday - ahead of Wimbledon, this year's third Grand Slams, which kickstarts in just eight days. He'll be hoping that he's fortunate with the draw he gets at SW19, because if he does, there's a great opportunity for him to go deep in the tournament and surprise even more critics.