Sweden’s Ymer brothers live a tennis dream after family’s Ethiopian nightmare

“I was like, ‘C’mon brother, let’s go. Let’s do this’,” Elias said.

Within hours of Elias defeating the world No 15, Mikael beat the world No 16. In the quarter-finals on Friday, Elias knocked out eighth seed Stefano Travaglia in Pune while Mikael sent Richard Gasquet packing in Montpellier. On the same day, playing some 7,000 km apart, the Ymer brothers were in the ATP Tour level semi-finals.

Elias lost his last-four clash on Saturday to Portuguese veteran Joao Sousa 7-5, 6-7(4), 5-7, but not before the world No 163 scripted his most spectacular run on the ATP tour as a qualifier.

“I’m a very spiritual guy, I believe in God,” Elias, 25, said in a chat with HT before his semi-final. “And I thank God every day for this.”

Not for him or his younger brother making deep runs in ATP events, but for simply playing professional tennis.

Elias’s parents, born and raised in Ethiopia, had their individual lives uprooted from the war-hit country in the 1980s. Their father, Wondwosen, fled the nation in his teens, migrating to Sweden where his elder sister lived. Their mother, Kelem, studying medicine in Russia, was unable to return home. She was offered a job in Stockholm and shifted there. Having grown up in the same neighborhood 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 steps while taking them on long runs as kids. Something, however, compelled him to change his mind.

“Yeah, it was me. I was crying,” Elias said, smiling.

Elias found his interest in tennis instead, and Mikael was all too happy to accompany his brother to the courts and quit running with their father. “My dad wanted us to be runners. It was his dream,” Elias said. “But he also always wanted his kids to be famous in sports. And because he was a runner himself, he wanted us to be runners too. But destiny said otherwise.”

In a few years, Elias and Mikael would compete against each other for national-level junior titles. Elias turned pro in 2014, and had success relatively early.

In 2015, he became only the second man ever to qualify for all Grand Slams in a calendar year as a teen. His rise coincided with a period of lull in Swedish tennis. With the career of Robin Soderling—the man who beat Rafael Nadal in Paris—hampered by injuries, Elias quickly became the No 1 in Sweden. He flirted with a top-100 entry over the next few years, but couldn’t really do it. Mikael, turning pro a year after Elias, did in 2019, pipping his brother as the top-ranked Swede and reaching a career-high world No 67 in 2020.

They are competitors on the ATP Tour, team-mates scripting unfancied victories for Sweden in the Davis Cup as well as training partners back home.

“We’ve been together all our lives. We practice together; we don’t have any other practice partners in Sweden. It’s him and me—No 1 and No 2. We’ve been working all our lives for this. Sometimes, you know, it just clicks,” Elias said.

Elias can never forget the events from three decades ago that engineered the click for him and his brothers; their youngest sibling, Rafael, 16, also plays tennis on the ITF circuit.

“I tell my brother, we’ve won the lottery,” Elias said. “Because if we were in Ethiopia, I don’t think we would have played tennis this way. Sweden opened their doors for us. My brother and I are extremely blessed—it’s a lot of things that have come together to make this possible. I don’t take any day for granted, because to come to the ATP events, I know how difficult it is. And to have two brothers playing on the Tour, it’s not often it happens. We’re grateful for each and every day that we’re 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, exploring the areas where the Ymer brothers could well have grown up. “I think about that every day, trust me, every single day. That my life would have been completely different if I was there,” Elias said. “Now, I am a tennis pro. I know it’s tough for us, but I always had that in my mind that we’re very blessed.”