Eva Lys dropped her racket and covered her face with her hands in disbelief. The tennis player, who slipped into the main field at the last minute, had just experienced a little tennis fairytale at the Australian Open.
The 23-year-old moved into the second round for the first time with a 6:2, 6:2 against Australian Kimberly Birrell Grand Slamtournament in Melbourne, even though she almost felt like she was on the plane heading home. “My flight was booked for tomorrow morning”said Lys. “I found out five minutes before it started that I was going to play the match.”
Fun was key
The Russian Anna Kalinskaja, seeded at number 13, pulled out of the tournament at short notice, so that the Hamburg native moved up as a so-called lucky loser. Lys took her chance in an impressive way. The Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva is waiting in the next round.
“Tennis is a mental sport. If you have zero expectations and are just happy that you get to play a match, it makes it easier,” said Lys, who cleared the opening hurdle at a Grand Slam for only the second time after the US Open 2023.
“I’m just happy”said Lys, who played with a permanent smile: “I made mistakes, but I was still happy to be on the pitch. That was definitely the key.”
Daniel Altmaier fights his way through
A few hours later, Daniel Altmaier also moved into the second round of the Australian Open. After five hard-fought sets, the 26-year-old prevailed against Argentina’s Francisco Comesana 6:2, 3:6, 7:6 (7:4), 4:6, 6:4. This means that six German professionals are through to the next round.
After 3:22 hours, the Davis Cup player was able to celebrate. The next opponent waiting for Kempen is Frenchman Gaël Monfils, who also won in five sets against compatriot Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round. The 38-year-old Monfils recently won the ATP tournament in Auckland.
Opponent extremely nervous
Eva Lys played cheekily and strongly against the Australian local hero in the Kia Arena, one of the four large arenas in Melbourne Park. The world ranking 128. took advantage of Birrell’s uncertainty, who had prepared for a game as an underdog against Kalinskaja. “She’s incredibly nervous, I would be so nervous if I were her”said Lys while walking to the towel.
Lys won the first set with four breaks, and even a toilet break didn’t bring Birrell the focus he had hoped for. Lys continued to act bravely and won the match after just 70 minutes. On the sidelines, national coach Torben Beltz was also amazed at the fantastic performance. Lys actually narrowly missed out on making it into the main draw in the last qualifying round due to a three-set defeat against the Australian Destanee Aiava.
Alexander Zverev will play again in the night session on Wednesday
The greatest German hopes at the first Grand Slam tournament are once again held by Alexander Zverev: The second game of the Hamburger was scheduled in the night session, as in the first round: Zverev will play against the Spaniard Pedro Martinez on Wednesday from 11 a.m. CET.