It’s all about winning in sports, right? So how can Eva Lys, who was, as she said, “run over by a train” and lost 0:6, 1:6, actually claim that she “enjoyed every second”? Is this that effeminate Generation Z who is already excited about taking part? No, quite the opposite: Lys had earned this experience in the Rod Laver Arena, this round of 16 against five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek, with three wins in Melbourne. And Swiatek had also shot all of her three previous opponents from the field – Emma Raducanu, after all the 2021 US Open winner, with the same result as Lys.
“It’s good to get a kick out of it sometimes,” said Lys. It was a crazy week, “the best week of my life so far”: main draw despite failing in qualifying, three wins in a row, the first so-called “lucky loser” in the round of 16. Plus enough points to be in the top 100 of the world rankings in the future, and finally an appearance in the largest arena in Melbourne. “That’s what I’ve been working towards for the last few years,” she said. Of course the result isn’t great, but: “I saw what it’s like to play in a stadium like that – against someone who has so much control of the pitch.” A step in the constant learning process: “You notice what you’re up against still have to work in the future. So I’m more motivated to have experienced this now; “You sometimes ask yourself: When will the time come?”
The time had come for Lys at this Australian Open, which should be the starting point for the 23-year-old’s fruitful professional career: In the future, she will be represented by the agency that Naomi Osaka founded – she had signed the contract before the trip to Melbourne. She therefore wants to see the defeat against Swiatek as learning and not as failure. She experienced something else on Monday evening: When she managed to win the game 1:3 in the second set (“Thank God it wasn’t a bagel,” she said – tennis language for a 0:6), she felt what it’s like to be almost 10 000 people freaking out for one. Lys then grinned like she had just won. She wants to experience this feeling more often in the future.
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