“I don’t think justice has been served” – Ymer explains third missed test was due to tournament changing his accommodation

Swedish tennis player Mikael Ymer, currently banned for 18 months after missing three doping tests during a 12-month period, took to social media to explain the circumstances of his third missed test.

The world No 51 revealed that the tournament he was playing, an ATP Challenger in Roanne, France in November 2021, had moved his accommodation from the main hotel to the secondary one at the last minute and had failed to inform his agent, who updates his whereabouts on the ITF system to track players for testing.

“After losing in the Paris Masters 1000 in 2021, I traveled to Roanne, France to play a Challenger. Often the tournament has a main hotel and a secondary one. I am usually booked into the main official hotel, and was told by my agent I was booked into the official hotel. However, when I tried to check in, it turned out I had actually been moved to the secondary hotel, which is an 8 min drive from the main hotel,” Ymer said in his lengthy post. “This is not uncommon, so I didn’t think twice about it and went to my room in the secondary hotel with no fuss. It just happened to be, that WADA decided to show up for an out of competition test the following morning at the main hotel.”

“The hotel were I tried to check in a few hours earlier, but was rejected. When I’m at tournaments, I know the hotel is a safe zone for me. If WADA decides to show up, I will get a phone call to my room and they will come up. I always set my daily hour of availability between 6 and 7 AM, as I know I will be in my room at that time. At 6.55 I received 1 call from a Spanish number and I didn’t for a second think it was anything important. I get tons of spam calls and was in my safe zone in a tournament hotel. Besides, since I was 3 km away, it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, as my available hour was ending at 7 and I couldn’t have made it to the main hotel in 5 minutes. Upon learning that I wasn’t at the hotel, and despite knowing that a player’s career was on the line, he decided to run down the clock until he called me. At my hearing he claimed it was protocol, that he wasn’t obligated to make an effort to contact me until 5 minutes before my time was up. But at my hearing, my attorney was able to prove that this exact handler had gone out of his way to find a different player at another event, and therefore it is clear that the “protocol” is only applicable if the handler so chooses.”

1/2

Hi guys!

It’s been unreal and some very difficult days for me. I’m trying to find the right way to process the news and work out how to proceed from here. In the meantime I won’t be making any comments or interviews. I would however like to put on record my experience with…

— Mikael Ymer (@MikaelYmer) July 25, 2023

Ymer is still unhappy about the fact that the independent tribunal of arbitrators cleared him of any wrongdoing but the ITF and CAS went ahead with the suspension, adding that another player had been cleared under similar circumstances in 2022.

“The independent tribunal of arbitrators obviously understood this and cleared me. For some reason ITF and CAS felt differently, and despite accepting the evidence put forward from us and our explanations, they still came to the conclusion that a ban was warranted, and that I should have done differently. I am 24 years old, at the prime of my career with a career high ranking, and I have been banned for 18 months. Banned not for gaining an unlawful competitive advantage on my colleagues, not for bringing the game into disrepute, not for gaining unlawful financial gain but because of a logistical technicality I had no reasonable way to prevent. It feels like a bad dream. I don’t think justice has been served. Neither with the decision itself nor with the subsequent punishment, which seems completely disproportionate compared to other bans that have ben handed out the last years. All I want to do is try and be the best tennis player I can be and make the most of my career in the limited time I have to compete professionally.”

“An 18 months suspension is de facto a 3 year ban – as it’s gonna take a long time and a substantial effort to get my ranking back up to where it is now, since I’m gonna be starting from scratch. And there’s no guarantee I will even succeed in doing that. I feel like this is an important case and important for other people to know the ins and outs. I’m sure my fellow colleagues on the tour are worried themselves, that one day it could be them. If this is the kind of thing, that can take a player off the tour, everyone is at risk. And if this happened to one of my colleagues, I would feel so bad on his or her behalf. Are we comfortable affecting young people’s livelihood like this? Am I a casualty needed for the system to work? I know for a fact that other players have been cleared after having had 3 strikes (last occasion was 2022), despite being very similar scenarios to mine. So why was I different? Lastly, I want to thank all the positive messages I’ve received from around the world. It means a lot to me and I really appreciate it! I look forward to seeing you all back on the courts in the future!!”

2/2

When we learned of the missed test, my team and I obviously tried to find out what had gone wrong. The system we had in place had worked pretty well – both for me, but also all the other top athletes my agent takes care of. And it goes without saying, that having had 2…

— Mikael Ymer (@MikaelYmer) July 25, 2023

Ymer received support from some players, including Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who revealed that the same issue had happened to her but she was lucky that the independent tribunal cleared her.

I don't understand why the ITF keeps harassing players like that 😞
The same thing happened to me and I got cleared by the independant tribunal. It was still the worst 6 months of my career. Thank God the ITF didn't appeal. I can't even imagine how you must feel…
Be strong 🙏❤️

— Alize Cornet (@alizecornet) July 25, 2023

Hang in there brother. I’m sure there is something that can be done about it. 18 months doesn’t seem right 😔 Keep your head up and don’t stop fighting for what’s right 🙏🏽💪🏽

— sascha Bajin (@BigSascha) July 25, 2023

I still can’t believe that this is happening…
The guy fought all his life to get at his best ranking, all the sacrifices, being far from his family etc..
I feel so sorry for him, he such a great guy i hope that everything’s gonna be better and good at the end for him
So unfair https://t.co/0h1AsndNtm

— Corentin Moutet (@moutet99) July 25, 2023

I just cannot believe ITF would do this.. it's horrible. It is so so so so unfair 🙁 Is there a way this stupid decision can be reversed ? 🙁 https://t.co/BbUHtPkCSf

— Daria Saville (@Daria_gav) July 25, 2023

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