Swedish tennis player and former world number 50 Mikael Ymer has announced his retirement at the age of 24 after an unsuccessful attempt to overturn an anti-doping suspension. The Swede took to social media to announce his decision to leave the sport behind.
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Ymer was charged in January 2022 for missing three out-of-competition tests in a 12-month period. He initially fought the charges and said he had been cleared by an independent tribunal in June 2022.
However, the ITF (International Tennis Federation) appealed the decision. After this, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld the two-year ban in July and imposed an 18-month suspension.
“Having already been cleared once, and wholeheartedly standing by the fact that I do not feel that the third offense was committed, I find their decision to try me again and subsequently find me guilty, unfair,” Ymer wrote on Twitter in July. “On top of that, I find it difficult to comprehend that they found an 18-month suspension to be a just punishment.”
Ymer said he has “never . . . used nor been accused of using banned substances.”
Mikael Ymer accepted his first two whereabouts failures but argued that in the third instance. The 24-year-old stated that he had changed hotels and that his agent had failed to disclose that update. That was upheld by an independent tribunal, which cleared the player in June 2022.
In April, Ymer reached his career-high rank of 50 and even represented Sweden in the Davis Cup. He was 80th in the most recent ATP rankings.
He also claimed his first career top-10 win earlier this year. In July, the 24-year-old beat ninth seed Taylor Fritz in the second round of Wimbledon. The Swede was two sets down to the number one American and came back to complete an impressive win.
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