Wimbledon star releases defiant assertion after being banned for 18 months

Mikael Ymer has hit out on the International Tennis Federation citing ‘unfair’ therapy after the tennis star was suspended from skilled tennis for 18 months for allegedly breaching anti-doping rules. The Swedish participant shall be provisionally banned till January 2025 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) discovered he had been at fault, and he’ll serve a prolonged suspension for failing to stick to anti-doping guidelines.

The prices associated to a interval the place Ymer is accused of lacking three out-of-competition drug take a look at makes an attempt over the house of 12 months. American tennis star Jenson Brooksby was additionally suspended earlier this yr for a similar offence.

Ymer was initially cleared by an impartial tribunal after requesting a listening to in June 2022. But the ITF fought the choice with an enchantment of their very own and, 13 months afterward July 17, the governing physique of tennis knowledgeable Ymer that he shall be sidelined for a yr and a half.

The CAS dominated in favour of the ITF, concluding that Ymer “failed in ensuring his compliance with the anti-doping regulations by omitting to verify his whereabouts on November 7 2021” and concluded the “fault of the player […] was high”, including that the third occasion “could be described as the result of culpable negligence”.

Ymer, 24, is at the moment 51st within the males’s singles ATP rankings and was on the cusp of breaking into the highest 50 for the primary time in his profession. But he now faces one other lengthy battle to clear his title after his newest setback and made his ideas clear on the choice.

A press release on Ymer’s official Twitter account confirmed his ban. It learn: “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 appealed that call although the three impartial arbitrators who cleared me have been appointed below its personal guidelines, and requested the Court of Arbitration for Sport to succeed in a distinct choice on the identical information below which I had already been cleared.

“Yesterday, 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. 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 prime of that, I discover it troublesome to grasp that they discovered an 18 month suspension to be a simply punishment. I perceive that these guidelines have been put in place to guard the integrity of our sport, and that they’re there for a purpose. However, I don’t consider I broke these guidelines, and my conscience is obvious with God as my witness.”

The Swedish No 1 reached the third spherical at Wimbledon this yr – his finest end up to now – earlier than he fell to a five-set defeat by the hands of Daniel Elahi Galan. He made the headlines for pulling off an upset in spherical two, knocking out ninth seed Taylor Fritz in 5 units earlier than dropping out to Galan.

He was attributable to face Peruvian opponent Juan Pablo Varillas on the Swiss Open on Monday however the match was cancelled.