With every passing tournament, it’s clear that tennis has a new bad boy on the scene. Mikael Ymer, Sweden’s next big hope, has been getting into arguments with umpires, taking long bathroom breaks, and generally annoying his opponents.

In his US Open match against Jenson Brooksby, Mikael Ymer threw his racquet in anger, which caused his string dampeners to fly into the crowd. He injured himself when he threw the racquet and had blood on his hands. He refused to play. He argued with the umpire and accused him of lying. He wanted to speak to someone other than the supervisor. He got a point violation. Surprisingly, he didn’t get defaulted. 

At the Washington Open last month, Mikael Ymer almost got into an on-court physical fight with Jordan Thompson over an argument about a double bounce.

Ymer had an impressive junior career. His junior ranking peaked at world number 3. He reached the 2015 Wimbledon junior finals where he lost to Reilly Opelka.

Ymer was born in Skara, Sweden to Ethiopian immigrant parents. His older brother, Elias also plays on the ATP tour.

Alexander Zverev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) in a tough semifinal match at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. During the match, Zverev accused Tsitsipas of getting coaching via text from his dad while Tsitsipas was on a bathroom break.

Tsitsipas took an eight-minute bathroom break at the end of the first set. Tsitsipas took his bag with him to the bathroom. Zverev was not impressed. 

He took his bag with his phone and everything in it. This was the same thing in Paris and is going to be the same thing every other tournament he’s playing.

– Alexander Zverev to chair umpire Adel Nour

Upon returning from a bathroom break, Tsitsipas changed his tactics. He served and volleyed a lot in the second set – something he didn’t do in the first set. 

Tsitsipas has a long history of getting coaching from his dad during matches. In this case, Zverev is insinuating that Tsitsipas and his dad are texting during a bathroom break. In a coincidence, Apostolos Tsitsipas was seen texting when Stefanos was in the bathroom.

Neither player addressed the issue during their post-match press conference. Zverev went on to win the title beating Andrey Rublev in the final.