Sweden’s giant blow in the capital qualifiers: Mikael Ymir injured

They are thus quite on par with Japan and Sweden in the battle for a place in the Davis Cup team tennis competition.

Now there are three matches left (two singles and one doubles).

We have Ilyas Ymir to thank for the fact that the starting point is no worse. The 133rd-ranked Swede beat world 101st-ranked Taro Daniel 2-0 (7-5, 6-4) in sets Friday night.

There wasn’t another day for the Swedish part before that.

The idea was that Swede Mikael Ymir, ranked 85th in the world, would face 267th seed Yosuke Watanuki in his first qualifying match.

But this put an end to the wrist injury.

Younger brother Ymir was replaced by Davis Cup number one Dragos Madaras, ranked 327th in the world rankings, who suffered a heavy loss 0-2 (4-6, 4-6) against Watanuki.

– Of course I’m glad I played, but I’m disappointed in myself that I couldn’t play better. I fought from first to last ball, but he was better than me,” Madaras said at a press conference.

I didn’t think it was my best match, I’ve had much better matches than this one.

The winning team proceeds to the fall group matches and will be joined by eleven other qualifying winners, along with Croatia (finalist 2021), Great Britain (wildcard) and Serbia (wildcard).

Russia is the defending champion and also qualified directly for the group stage, but was disqualified due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.