Wimbledon ace banned for 18 months gets support from angry Casper Ruud

Casper Ruud responded to Mikael Ymer’s ban (Image: Getty) Casper Ruud has given his verdict after Mikael Ymer was suspended for 18 months after being accused of missing three anti-doping tests in a one-year period. The Swedish star upset ninth seed Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon but is now set to be out until 2025 because of the ban, which was imposed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after an ITF appeal. The tennis world has been rocked by two similar suspensions in recent weeks, with Ymer becoming the latest player to be suspended based on the whereabouts programme. The world No 51 announced news of his ban on Tuesday – weeks after Jenson Brooksby accepted a provisional suspension after allegedly missing three tests while claiming the third instance never happened. Ymer explained that he was initially cleared of the three missed tests allegation by an independent tribunal after requesting a hearing in June 2022. But the ITF fought the decision with an appeal of their own and, 13 months later, the 24-year-old learned that he had been banned for a year and a half. World No 4 Ruud has now responded to the incident and claimed that players were made to feel like ‘prisoners’ in order to be home for the random drug tests. ‘It feels like you are a prisoner in a way because if you are not there when they show up then you have problems,’ the three-time Grand Slam finalist said, per SVT . Mikael Ymer was banned for 18 months (Image: Getty) ‘Let’s say you have to be home between 9-10pm one evening. Then a friend calls and asks if we should go out to dinner. Then you can’t do it because you have to be at home that hour in case the doping inspectors come.’   The 24-year-old also said it could be difficult to ensure you didn’t miss the moment that testing officials arrived. He continued: ‘It’s tough sometimes not being able to live spontaneously. ‘Mikael has made a mistake, but I know from my own experience that you can miss that hour some day and then they call and say: ‘You have five minutes to come here or you will get a warning,’ and it can feel like someone checks one. It’s tough but those are the rules.’ Mikael Ymer upset Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon (Image: Getty) ‘The ITF appealed that decision despite the fact that the 3 independent arbitrators who cleared me were appointed under its own rules, and asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reach a different decision on the same facts under 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.’   Meanwhile, the CAS said the ITF initially appealed and asked for a two-year suspension. In Ymer’s third missed test, the Swede requested one hotel from a tournament that his agent logged in the system before being given a different hotel. His agent was not aware of the change and did not update his whereabouts. The CAS said the 18-month ban ‘was determined in accordance with the CAS jurisprudence, based on the degree of fault of the Player. The majority of the Panel found that the degree of fault of the Player, a professional and experienced athlete, was high, although the third whereabouts failure could be described as the result of culpable negligence.’