Sweden’s brothers Ymer live a tennis dream after the family’s Ethiopian nightmare | Tennis News
Before his quarter-final against top seed Aslan Karatsev at the ATP Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune, Elias Ymer had a chat with his brother. Mikael, who played another ATP 250 event in Montpellier, France, met Gael Monfils in his quarterfinals.
“I thought, ‘Come on, brother, let’s go. Let’s do this,'” said Elias.
Within hours of Elias defeating world number 15, Mikael beat world number 16. In the quarterfinals on Friday, Elias knocked out eighth-seeded Stefano Travaglia in Pune while Mikael sent Richard Gasquet packing in Montpellier. On the same day, when they played about 7,000 km apart, the Ymer brothers were in the semifinals at ATP Tour level.
Elias lost his last four match on Saturday against Portuguese veteran Joao Sousa 7-5, 6-7 (4), 5-7, but not until world number 163 wrote his most spectacular ride on the ATP Tour as a qualifier.
“I’m a very spiritual guy, I believe in God,” said Elias, 25, in a chat with HT before his semifinal. “And I thank God every day for this.”
Not for him or his younger brother who does deep runs in ATP events, but to simply play professional tennis.
Elijah’s parents, born and raised in Ethiopia, had their individual lives uprooted from the war-torn country in the 1980s. Their father, Wondwosen, fled the nation in his teens and migrated to Sweden where his older sister lived. Their mother, Kelem, who was studying medicine in Russia, could not return home. She was offered a job in Stockholm and moved there. After growing up in the same district of Addis Ababa, Wondwosen and Kelem met in Sweden and began a new life.
Elias was born in Skara in 1996, two years before Mikael. Wondwosen, a professional long-distance runner in Ethiopia, wanted his sons to follow in his footsteps while taking them on long-distance races as children. However, something forced him to change.
“Yes, it was me. I cried,” said Elias, smiling.
Elias instead found his interest in tennis and Mikael was too happy to accompany his brother to the courts and stop running with their father. “My father wanted us to be runners. It was his dream,” said Elias. “But he also always wanted his children to be known in sports. And since he himself was a runner, he wanted us to be runners too. But fate said otherwise. “
In a few years, Elias and Mikael would compete against each other for junior titles at the national level. Elias became a professional in 2014 and had success relatively early.
In 2015, he became just the second man ever to qualify for all the Grand Slams during a calendar year as a teenager. His rise coincided with a period of calm in Swedish tennis. With Robin Söderling’s career – the man who beat Rafael Nadal in Paris – hampered by injuries, Elias quickly became number one in Sweden. He flirted with a top-100 record over the next few years, but could not really do so. Mikael, who became a professional one year after Elias, did it in 2019, and made his brother the top-ranked Swede and reached a career world place 67 in 2020.
They are competitors on the ATP tour, teammates who write unforeseen victories for Sweden in the Davis Cup and training partners at home.
“We’ve been together all our lives. We practice together; we have no other internship partners in Sweden. It’s him and me – No. 1 and No. 2. We’ve worked our whole lives for this. Sometimes, you know, it just clicks, said Elias.
Elias can never forget the events of three decades ago that created the clique for him and his brothers; their youngest sibling, Rafael, 16, also plays tennis on the ITF court.
“I tell my brother, we have won the lottery,” said Elias. “Because if we were in Ethiopia, I do not think we would have played tennis this way. Sweden opened its doors to us. My brother and I are extremely blessed – there are many things that have come together to make this possible. I do not take any day for granted, to come to the ATP events know how difficult it is. And to have two brothers playing on the Tour, it does not often happen. We are grateful for every day we are here. And our family is very happy for us. ”
Elias has been to Ethiopia a few times. On a trip in 2017, he visited Addis Ababa with his father and explored the areas where the Ymer brothers could very well have grown up. “I think about it every day, believe me, every day. That my life would have been completely different if I had been there,” said Elias. “Now I’m a tennis professional. I know it’s tough for us, but I’ve always kept in mind that we’re very blessed. ”