Severely punished: Swedish tennis player suspended for a year and a half

(Patria) - Swedish tennis player Mikael Ymer has been handed an 18-month ban after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) against a previous acquittal in this case related to a violation of the anti-doping rules.

In January 2022, Ymer was charged with three missed out-of-competition tests within a 12-month period.

The 24-year-old Swedish tennis player decided to fight the charge and was acquitted by an independent tribunal in June 2022 after a hearing. However, the ITF appealed that decision.

The CAS announced that the ITF had sought a two-year ban for the Swede, and the panel partially accepted the appeal, imposing an 18-month ban.

"Given that I was already acquitted once and that I still wholeheartedly maintain that I did not commit the third violation I am charged with, I consider it unfair that they decided to retry me and consequently find me guilty.

On top of that, I find it hard to understand that an 18-month suspension is a fair punishment. I do not believe I broke the rules, and my conscience is clear, and God is my witness," Ymer wrote on his Twitter profile.

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…

— Mikael Ymer (@MikaelYmer) July 18, 2023

The CAS stated that Ymer accepted responsibility for the first two violations, committed on April 22 and August 10, 2021, when he was not at the location he was required to report for each day under the rules.

Ymer contested the third violation he was charged with, which, according to the ITF's interpretation, occurred on November 7, Hina reports.

The Swedish tennis player claims that in that case, there was a communication error with his representative.

In the first-instance proceedings, the CAS found that the person responsible for conducting the doping control did everything possible to obtain information on the player's location, but that neither the tennis player nor his representative could be charged with a violation.

Namely, Ymer did not inform his representative about the change of hotel where he was staying, so his representative did not enter that change into the form for reporting the tennis player's whereabouts.

In the appeal proceedings, the panel members concluded that Ymer made an omission and thereby violated the anti-doping rules by failing to check whether his representative had entered the hotel change into the form.

Mikael Ymer is currently ranked 51st on the ATP list and was scheduled to play in the first round of the tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland, against Peruvian Varillas today.

At this year's Wimbledon, he reached the third round, surprising the ninth seed, American Taylor Fritz, in the second round.