5. The Ymer Brothers
As Denmark will be fighting to get themselves into Group I, Sweden will be fighting to keep themselves in. The key players in this fight will be the Ymer brothers, Elias and Mikael. Elias’ year so far hasn’t been as explosive as last year, and that resulted in a slight ranking drop. Despite that, the Swede still won a Challenger title on clay and reached the quarterfinals in Gstaad. The decrease in consistency is accountable for him dropping to No. 150 in singles. Mikael’s growth has been hindered by injuries this year. He missed 8 months of potential play, in what was supposed to be his transition year. However, Mikael showed his potential at the Como Challenger, his only tournament of the year so far. He used his protected ranking to enter the qualifying, and went on to reach the second round. Both of the brothers are best on clay, which Sweden picked as the surface for this tie in Bastad.
Elias Ymer will open the tie with an intriguing match against Thiemo De Bakker. These two players are currently on the same playing level, but have very different styles, which is what should make this match interesting. The fact that on clay De Bakker’s serve isn’t going to be as much of a weapon, and the match is best of five will turn this into a physical battle, which Ymer should win. In the second rubber, Mikael Ymer will play the Dutch No. 1 Robin Haase. The 18 year old Mikael will try to overcome the almost 600 spot difference in the rankings, and give Haase a competitive match. Isak Arvidsson and Fred Simonsson will be playing the doubles for Sweden, most probably against Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer. Netherlands will be the outright favorite in both rubbers on the final day.
