Realising you’ve missed a deadline is never easy and no one knows the feeling better than Mikael Ymer.
Two weeks before Wimbledon began, the young Swede had the sudden realisation he had missed the cut-off for entries.
Panicked phone calls ensued between his agent, Fraser Wright, and the All England Club about how he might be able to take part, and the decision was made to grant Ymer a wild card into the main draw of the boys' singles event. Now he has reached Sunday's final, no one can say he hasn’t made the most of the opportunity.
“A few weeks ago I was just checking on my phone about Roehampton entries and thought that there was one more week until the Wimbledon deadline. Then, two days after, I realised the Wimbledon entry deadline was one week earlier,” he explains. “I want to thank the All England Club for fixing the wild card, otherwise I wouldn’t be here today.”
Ymer's experience of SW19 is markedly better than his first visit, when he was nine. He and his father had hoped to watch Andy Murray against Roger Federer but mistakenly thought they could buy tickets on the day. Much to their disappointment, they found out at the gates that wasn’t possible.
Ymer says he decided there and then that, rather than return as a spectator, he would go even further and play at The Championships instead.
“My dad isn’t here this week because he didn’t want to have anything to do with it going wrong again,” he adds.
If the name seems familiar, Mikael’s older brother Elias competed in the Senior draw for the first time this year, going out in the first round to Ivo Karlovic following an impressive display in the Qualifying competition.
And it seems it was only thanks to Elias that Mikael started playing. I didn’t play in the beginning and then, one day, Elias was complaining a lot and not behaving well on court,” he says.
“My dad took him off the court and I started hitting. I was hitting very well, so after that we just started playing with each other.”
Ymer is in good hands at the Good to Great Academy run by Magnus Norman, who has coached both Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov.
“They help me a lot at the academy. My sponsor, Bactiguard, has the connection with them and invest in the programme I am on, and everything is working very good.”
Rather than consider it a negative pressure to have a brother pursuing the same career, Ymer is extremely positive about the impact it has on his game.
“It’s great for me. Usually when he does good I do good as well. I think he’s very important for my tennis. I think if he wasn’t doing this good, I wouldn’t be either. I feel pressure to keep chasing him so I think it’s great we have each other. It’s absolutely a positive.”
The pair have become known in Sweden as the ‘Brothers from Skara’, their small hometown a few hours from Stockholm. “The attention is huge now after this kind of result,” he says.
“We haven’t really had someone from Sweden since [Robin] Soderling went away. The next one who breaks through is going to be really big.”
Not that he assumes it will be him. Unlike many players his age, Ymer is not talking about being world No.1 and acknowledges that he still has a long way to go.
“In the short term I want to finish with Juniors to get ready for the bigger stage. I won one Future but I probably have to do a couple more to get up to Challenger,” he says.
Thanks to team @DjokerNole for a great practice, good luck tomorrow!:) #amazingguy pic.twitter.com/9rgEpMeeM8
— 〽Y (@MikaelYmer) July 11, 2015“I want to get used to being able to do a good result each week, and then try Challenger qualifiers. The top 100 is my first long-term goal and then I’ll work from there.”
With large crowds having watched most of his matches this week, it is clear he doesn’t struggle for motivation on the big stage. However, he has experienced the very different story at Futures level already, and has a simple answer about what keeps him motivated when playing to small crowds in far-off places.
“If I play a Future in not the best place, I think that if I want to leave that place I have to start doing well, and having better results. I push myself in that way. Wimbledon gives me a taste for that. Everything here is like a museum.”
He could not have had a much better debut at SW19, progressing to the final without losing a set. Up next will be the big-serving American Reilly Opelka, who knocked out Taylor Fritz in the semi-final.
The All England Club's decision to go out on a limb for the talented youngster has been vindicated and he is just one match away from going all the way from last-minute wild card to boys’ singles champion. “It’s a great feeling to reach the final. I’m very proud for me and my team. We’ve been working very hard,” says Ymer.