Mikael Ymer handed 18-month suspension under anti-doping rule violation, Swedish No. 1 alleges unfair punishment
Sweden's top men's tennis player Mikael Ymer has been suspended from professional tennis for 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport over a potential anti-doping rule violation.
Ymer, ranked World No. 51, was charged in January 2022 with missing three out-of-competition doping test attempts in a 12-month period in 2021. He appealed his case in front of an independent three-person tribunal appointed under rules set up by the International Tennis Federation. Ymer accepted that he was at fault for missing tests on 22 April 2021 and 10 August 2021.
However, he argued for innocence for the 7 November 2021 incident, which took place on the eve of Roanne Challenger in France, where Ymer was at a different hotel than the one he had requested when making his reservation for the test. The mix-up was blamed on a miscommunication with Ymer's agent. The tribunal agreed with Ymer and exonerated him of any wrongdoing.
In July 2022, ITF appealed the tribunal's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and requested a two-year suspension for Ymer over the rule violation. CAS has now ruled in favor of ITF and imposed an 18-month suspension.
In its decision, CAS said that Ymer intentionally chose not to verify his location for the third test and assumed that his agent or tennis authorities would resolve any discrepancy in his actual and declared location.
Mikael Ymer took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the CAS decision and argued that he had done nothing nefarious in his life. The 24-year-old called his suspension and ITF's appeal to CAS unjust. He also called out the ITF for prosecuting him over the same case again after he was found not guilty once.
"I learned that the Court of Arbitration for Sports has suspended me from professional tennis for 18 months, despite never having used nor been accused of using banned substances," Ymer tweeted.
"Having already been cleared once, and wholeheartedly standing by the fact that I do not feel that the 3rd offence was committed, I find their decision to try me again and subsequently find me guilty, unfair. On top of that, I find it difficult to comprehend that they found an 18 month suspension to be a just punishment."
"I do not believe I broke those rules, and my conscience is clear with God as my witness."
In January 2022, the ITF charged me with a potential anti-doping rule violation for having 3 missed out of competition test attempts in a 12-month period. I fought that charge at a hearing, and was cleared by an independent tribunal of 3 arbitrators in June of 2022. The ITF… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Here is the full statement by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Mikael Ymer's suspension:
Court of Arbitration for Sport decision. The 18 month suspension starts today - it’s not backdated.
Explains how a third missed test occurred (Ymer was given a different hotel to the one he requested & had logged, his agent wasn’t aware & therefore didn’t update his whereabouts) twitter.com/yasminstefsyed… https://t.co/FPumC03IG3
Mikael Ymer last played at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships
Before his suspension, which will start immediately, Mikael Ymer competed at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. The Swede reached the third round at SW19, his best performance at the tournament, losing to Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia in a five-set match, 6-2, 6-7(2), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-1.
Before losing to Galan, Ymer defeated No. 9 seed Taylor Fritz in the second round and Alex Molcan of Slovakia in the first round. Ymer has reached the third of a Grand Slam thrice in his career before -- the 2021 Australian Open, the 2021 and 2022 French Open.
Mikael Ymer was set to face Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru in the first round of the Gstaad Open in Switzerland before he had to pull out due to the suspension. He has now been replaced by Otto Virtanen.