Muster’s second retirement

Thomas Muster [1,078], the former No. 1 in the world, for the second time finished his career last week in Vienna. The 44-year-old Austrian retired for the first time at Roland Garros in 1999, where he achieved his biggest success getting the crown in 1995. He came back after 11 years of retirement last year in June to play a Challenger in Braunschweig. I’m not a fan of these comebacks, Muster retired playing much more below his best form in 1999, he was playing in the Champions Tour without spectacular achievements, so if he hadn’t been able to beat on regular basis retired guys born in the 60’s & 70’s, he wouldn’t have played on equal terms against the much more fitter guys born in the 80’s. During his second professional life he participated in 19 challengers (+ two qualifying tournaments), and 3 ATP events (all in Austria), notching an abysmal 2-24 record. The only wins came in Ljubljana last year (beat Borut Puc, No. 570 at the time) and in Todi this year (surprisingly defeated Leonardo Mayer, No. 119). In front of a 9,000 home crowd, he was beaten last week by his 26 years younger compatriot Dominic Thiem 2-6, 3-6, for whom it was the first ATP win. Muster played 15 times in Vienna, for the first time in 1984 – nine years before Thiem was born! “At the beginning I didn’t know if to cry or to play,” Muster said about 10 minutes of standing ovations he received before and after his first-round match. “It’s really hard to start a match a like that. You get standing ovations when you win, when you play a great match or win a tournament, but not in the first round and certainly not like that“.