The tennis fairy tale for Eva Lys continues. As a lucky loser, the German completely unexpectedly made it into the third round. This immediately earned her a lot of affection.
After the match point, Eva Lys sank to the ground on court number six at the Australian Open. She probably couldn’t believe what had just happened. The 23-year-old, ranked 126th in the women’s world rankings before the tournament, won after a tough and close match against Varvara Gracheva from France 6:2, 3:6, 6:4.
Afterwards, there were immoral offers from the stands. A group of fans sang a slightly modified grandstand hit: “Hey Eva, I want to know if you’d be my girl.” Lys waved to the audience and gave willingly signed autographs and took selfies with the audience.
How extraordinary this victory was was shown not only by the reactions of the fans and those of her happy family, who accompanied her at the Grand Slam tournament and beamed with joy. National coach Torben Beltz also clenched his fist and cheered. The 48-year-old was relieved that after Tatjana Maria and Jule Niemeier’s elimination on Thursday, Lys of all people (you can read more about her lightning start at the Australian Open here) continues to hold the flag of German women’s tennis high – together with Laura Siegemund, whose game against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova takes place on Friday.
Lys only qualified for the main round as a lucky loser and benefited from the withdrawal of another player. The tickets to Germany were already booked, but fifteen minutes before the first round match Lys found out that she was allowed to play. She came onto the pitch completely unprepared – and won. Now she also mastered the Gracheva hurdle.
The duel was characterized at times by many slight errors, both players often looked for their serve game and made several inaccuracies. But Lys held her nerve in a remarkable manner. At no point did she allow herself to be disturbed, while the Frenchwoman kept arguing with herself.
Lys, who was born in Ukraine and grew up in Hamburg, remained cool. Her body language showed that she always believed in herself. That paid off. She converted the first match point that came her way. The last rally was symptomatic: After a long baseline duel in which Lys repeatedly returned her opponent’s punches, showed strong footwork and appeared to remain unimpressed, Gracheva hit the ball out of bounds.
It’s not often that a lucky loser reaches the third round. Lys made it, even though her father and coach had already left early – he had assumed that his daughter wouldn’t make it into the main field. National coach Beltz will be training the young German as a substitute during the tournament. And then there was the support of her tennis-crazy family: Lys’ mother and her younger sister hugged her after the brilliant victory. On Saturday, the 23-year-old will face either the Italian Lucia Bronzetti or Jaqueline Cristian (Romania).