World No.51,
Mikael Ymer has been the latest to be suspended from tennis for a lengthy period of 18 months for violating anti-doping rules.
Ymer joins Jenson Brooksby who also failed for missing three tests which the Swede also did. But there is more to this one than appears to be the case if Ymer's statement is anything to go by.
Revealing the news on social media, Ymer said that he was charged early last year and was cleared by an independent tribunal but the ITF appealed the decision and asked the Court for Arbitration for Sport to reach a different decision despite him already being cleared.
Having already being cleared once, he was handed an 18 month suspension despite never being found guilty of taking performance enhancing or banned substances. It is unknown if he can or will appeal.
Ymer's lengthy statement released on social media is as follows:
"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 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. 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 top of that, I find it difficult to comprehend that they found an 18 month suspension to be a just punishment.
"I understand that these rules have been put in place to protect the integrity of our sport, and that they are there for a reason. However, I do not believe I broke those rules, and my conscience is clear with God as my witness."
