A left knee injury to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga during the recent US Open has meant the French star has had to withdraw from the Chengdu Open. He has been replaced by one of the most exciting young players in world tennis, Austria’s world 10, Dominic Thiem.

“We are all certainly disappointed that Jo-Wilfried cannot make it to the Chengdu Open, but at the same time we are delighted to be able to welcome Dominic Thiem into the tournament,” Tournament Director Nick Freyer of IMG said. “Dominic has one of the most fluid games in world tennis and we have no doubt the fans will be thrilled to see him in action.

“On behalf of the Chengdu Open we send Jo our best wishes for a speedy recovery. Anyone who saw the pain he was in during his quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic in New York would certainly understand his withdrawal. When the physio pressed on his left knee he jumped in pain and he had to retire from that match. He has similarly withdrawn from this weekend’s Davis Cup competition and all the Asian swing events.”

This year Thiem has reached a career high ranking of seven and he is currently ranked ten on the ATP computer. His one handed backhand is a beautiful shot to watch in full flight.

The 23 year old owns seven career titles. He won four titles on three different surfaces (clay, hard and grass) so far in 2016 – Stuttgart, Nice, Acapulco and Buenos Aires, as well as reaching the final in Munich. He was also a semi-finalist in Halle, the French Open, Rio and Brisbane and a quarter-finalist in Rome and Cincinnati.

This year Thiem has twice defeated Roger Federer (Stuttgart and Rome) and scored wins over Rafa Nadal (Buenos Aires) and Marin Cilic (Brisbane).

Thiem is joined by Nick Kyrgios, Feliciano Lopez, Kevin Anderson, Grigor Dimitrov, Marcos Baghdatis, Borna Coric, Viktor Troicki amongst others who have booked their trips to Chengdu.