Dominic Thiem has already planned unusual retirement career as star rules out coaching

is preparing to step away from tennis at the age of 31.

The Austrian next week after spending years battling a wrist injury.

Thiem has already started working on projects for his post-playing days as he shared his unusual career pivot. While he also wants to stay involved in tennis, he has no plans to return to the tour as a coach.

Thiem was once tipped to be the successor to the Big Three. He became the first man born in the 1990s to reach a Grand Slam final in 2018 and, two years later, the first to win a Major title.

The former world No. 3 consistently caused trouble for Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, beating them several times at big tournaments. But a wrist injury derailed his career in 2021 and, earlier this year, he announced his retirement.

Thiem is competing in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown exhibition this weekend before his farewell tournament, the Vienna Open. The 31-year-old will play his first-round match on Tuesday, in what could be his potential last appearance as a professional tennis player.

Ahead of his last dance, Thiem opened up on his retirement plans and revealed he had already started working on one of his projects - an eco-friendly energy company.

"I'm already, or we are already, working as a team. Since the decision is made that I'm going to retire with the Vienna week, we already started two main projects," the Austrian told .

"One is Thiem Energy, clean electricity from the sun, a project that I believe is for common good. Everybody can join it in Austria now, maybe one (day) internationally. And it's a lot of work to do, actually."

Thiem's father Wolfgang also runs a tennis academy which the former No. 3 is hoping to stay involved in. He continued: "There is also our tennis academy. I think I can have some weeks off to get a little bit of distance from tennis.

"But then I really want to help young players to develop and to make the step from a junior to a professional player. I want to give back to tennis, as tennis gave me so much."

While Thiem is keen to help young players take the next step in their careers, he doesn't see himself becoming a full-time tennis coach. "In the future I don't know but right now, I don't want to or I'm not planning to come back as a touring coach," he explained.

"I'm a bit tired of travelling, especially far away. And there are way better tennis coaches than me."

But the 17-time title winner believes he can help plenty of players. He added: "But for sure, I had a lot of experiences which can be very helpful for young players. Especially, I would say in the age from 15 to 20 or 21, when there's a lot going on and you have to make that step.

"I didn't come up that fast like, for example, Carlos Alcaraz or many other young players. It took a while. I had to suffer a lot as well. I'm planning more on this. I want to help Austrian players or even others. The academy is international. So, yeah, it doesn't matter from where the players are coming."