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"Pressure is for tires," said basketball legend Charles Barkley, and Elias Ymer would doubtless agree. Having been touted as the next best thing to happen to Swedish tennis ever since he was a child, the 19-year-old has risen to become one of the future stars of the next generation.

Stockholm, March 2013. The Waterfront Congress Centre was playing host to an ATP Champions Tour event, and all the big names of Swedish tennis were present. Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Mikael Pernfors and Magnus Larsson were out on court, while Tomas Enqvist, Jonas Björkman, Robin Soderling and the legendary Björn Borg were in the stands. And in an exhibition match that served as a curtain-raiser, Elias Ymer took centre stage. Just another day at the office for a (not so) ordinary young lad who has been hyped up to be the saviour of Scandinavian tennis and restore it to its former glories.

Compared with that, the second round of qualifying at Roland-Garros is a stroll in the park for Ymer, or at least it was until a 6-2, 5-1, 30-0 lead suddenly became 5-3, 30-40 as his opponent, Slovenia's Blaz Rola, came battling back. That break point could have brought the No.4 seed right back into the match, particularly since young Ymer was struggling on his first service. His second service has yet to become a real weapon, but this did not worry the Swede who continued to take the game to his adversary, stepping up the pace and firing a winner down the line. Two points later, an emphatic smash served as an exclamation point on a solid victory. "No, I don't really feel pressure," said the man of the moment, who despite still being in his teens is already Swedish No.1 and became the youngest player last year to win a Davis Cup match for his country since Mats Wilander. "I actually like the tension. I seem to be at my best in moments like that."

Already a Davis Cup player

Blanco: "Put the same amount of intensity into the first round of a little tournament as you would into a big match on a show court". His results over recent months would seem to bear him out. While he has yet to shine on the Challenger circuit, winning just the one match in three tournaments, he certainly steps up to the plate on the big stage, having already qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open last January, defeating Jurgen Melzer in a Davis Cup five-setter and getting through two rounds on the clay of Barcelona, the city where he currently trains and is coached by the experienced Galo Blanco (who took another promising young player in the shape of Milos Raonic to the fringes of the top 10). He also gets to practise on-site with plenty of elite players, including Fabio Fognini and Marcel Granollers.

Having gone from looking after a Canadian who rewrote the history of tennis in his country with almost every big win to a Swede charged with dusting off and unlocking the nation's well-stocked yet under-used (in recent years at least) trophy cabinet, Blanco soon realised that "Elias has always had to live with the incredible expectations that people place in him. He has to live with it. It's even become second nature to him, and that's an advantage when it comes to the big matches. After that, like all youngsters, he needs consistency, to put the same amount of intensity into the first round of a little tournament as you would into a big match on a show court." That big match - and maybe a show court - is now just two sets away. Standing in his way is Roberto Carballes Baena, an old-school Spaniard who is solid without being exceptional. Hopefully he will put just enough pressure on Ymer to keep him on his toes.

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A year ago this week, Swedish 19-year-old Elias Ymer was in Bangkok, Thailand, playing a low-level Challenger event. Then No. 244 in the world, Ymer, who still had not played in the qualifying rounds at a Grand Slam, lost his opening-round match to No. 370 Toshihide Matsui.

“When I played those Challengers, I was five [spots] out of the qualies here at the US Open,” said Ymer, who wavered back and forth between coming or not to New York last year. “I missed it by five, so I was really sad. I was like next year, I have to be in the main draw.”

The Swedish player of Ethiopian descent not only made that wish a reality on Friday with his win over former world No. 22 Albert Montanes, but Ymer became only the second player to come through the qualifying rounds at each of the season’s four Grand Slams in the same year. The other was Frank Dancevic, in 2011.

“It feels really unbelievable,” said Ymer. “I’m really happy with my achievement, and if someone would have asked me at the beginning of the year, ‘Will you qualify for all four Slams?’ I would have taken it straight. And yesterday it happened. I’m really happy.”

The path was not easy, either. From former world No. 24 and current No. 41 in Benoit Paire to fellow up-and-comer Hyeon Chung, who is now at No. 71, Ymer has had his fair share of battles in qualifying throughout the year.

In Flushing alone, Ymer faced opponents in the second and third rounds of qualifying who have played in the main draw at a combined 61 Grand Slams, winning a total of 33 matches.

“Of course to play qualies, it’s 128 players and only 16 make it to the big party and you know everyone wants to,” said Ymer. “You fight until the end and to have made it four times, it’s big.”

It did not hurt for Ymer to spend a week earlier in the month training with 17-time Grand and five-time US Open champion Roger Federer in Zurich, Switzerland.

“Roger, he’s an unbelievable guy and he taught me a lot about how to play these points,” said Ymer. “We had dinners together, lunch, he gave me some media tips on how to speak with the media and everything. He’s a great guy.”

In spending that time with the former No. 1, Ymer was not only acting as a practice partner but as a student as well.

“He’s so professional with everything he does, he’s just perfect,” said the top-ranked Swede. “I think I have a pretty good work ethic, but to see him person-to-person when we were practicing, it felt surreal. It felt really like a dream come true.”

Many have thrown Ymer’s name into a group of young players many have dubbed as tennis’ next generation – 10 teenagers have earned a spot in the US Open’s main draw, with three of them already solidly in the Top 100 of the rankings.

“I want to be there really soon,” said Ymer. “Of course I take one match at a time. If I’m feeling the ball good, playing good in the qualies, I really hope I can do some good things here.”

Armed with a big forehand and great variety with strokes that rocket off his strings, Ymer already has proven that he can compete. At the Australian Open, he pushed Go Soeda to five sets, while forcing the US Open’s No. 21 seed Ivo Karlovic to a fourth-set tiebreak at Wimbledon. All of this has happened since missing out on qualifying in New York just a year ago.

“[In] one year, a lot of things can happen.”

Ymer opens his campaign Monday against Diego Schwartzman on Court 14.