BASTAD, July 26, 2018

Following the SkiStar Swedish Open, 19-year-old Mikael Ymer made a great gesture when he announced that he will donate his entire prize money from the ATP 250 tournament in Bastad to help underprivileged children in Ethiopia.

The Swedish teenager entered the event with a wild card and recorded his fifth win on the ATP World Tour against Denis Istomin before losing in the second round to eventual champion Fabio Fognini in three sets. Mikael and his older brother Elias were born in Sweden but their parents are both from Ethiopia, one of the world’s poorest countries, with about 40 per cent of its population living in poverty.

No player from Ethiopia can currently be found in the ATP World Tour Rankings and the country has not competed in the Davis Cup since 2002. Its best-ever result in the team competition was finishing 13th in the Europe/Africa Zone’s Group III in 1997.

This is Mikael’s inspiring message he posted on facebook: