Tennis: “Lucky Lys” celebrates historic success at Australian Open

Eva Lys added a historic chapter to her tennis fairytale at the Australian Open. The 23-year-old won in the third round against the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian 4:6, 6:3, 6:3 and became the first female lucky loser ever to reach the round of 16 of the Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne.

The world ranking 128. had actually already failed in qualifying and only officially moved into the main draw 15 minutes before her first match. There she is causing quite a stir under her new nickname “Lucky Lys” with three victories.

In the round of the best 16, the Hamburg native can compete with top star Iga Swiatek on Monday. The Polish world number two gave the British Emma Raducanu no chance in the duel between two Grand Slam tournament winners with 6:1, 6:0.

Up and down in the “hot duel”

“I’m looking forward to a great duel,” Lys said before the game against Cristian: “I know I have the level. But it’s the head that turns on at some point and then I can no longer play freely.”

That initially seemed to be the problem against Cristian. Lys initially didn’t appear as carefree as she had in her two previous matches and was quickly behind 1:4. Although she improved, she was only able to take advantage of one of six break opportunities and therefore lost the first set.

In the second round she did better and took the first two service games from her opponent. She may also have remembered the previous three duels with the Romanian, all of which Lys had won after being 1-0 down.

She now achieved this feat in the fourth meeting. After 2:25 hours, the Kiev native converted her second match point.