NEW YORK — Months of defeats and injuries brought Eva Lys to a dark place, one she has been able to leave behind thanks to psychological therapy.
“I have been working a lot with my psychologist over the last few weeks, because I reached a point where I completely lost the joy of being on the court,” the German said on Tuesday, after beating Czech player Gabriela Knutson 6-3 and 6-3 in the first round of the US Open.
The good news: “I worked hard. I am definitely finding the joy again.”
Her victory on day three of the year’s last Grand Slam — a very rainy day on which only half the matches could be completed — was much more than earning a place in the second round: “It was a very special win.”
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In 2026, Lys has won just six matches and arrived in New York close to dropping out of the top 100, sitting 98th in the WTA rankings. She has not won two consecutive matches since late September 2025.
She was kept off the courts for two months after suffering a knee injury in the first round of the Australian Open. Her return in Miami also ended in a first-round defeat, and the struggles continued through the clay and grass seasons, where she won very few matches.
In Canada she experienced another nightmare: she had to retire injured in the first round of the WTA 1000 in Toronto. She wept on the court when she could no longer go on.
In 2020 she was diagnosed with spondyloarthritis, a form of inflammatory arthritis that causes chronic inflammation and stiffness in the joints and back. The German has noted that her recovery from illness or injury is significantly slower than that of most players. “I always wanted to be physically stronger, more resilient, but the arthritis always got in the way,” she said in an interview with CLAY in January.
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Her current situation is very different from 2025, a season in which she reached the Australian Open quarter-finals and achieved her best ranking (39th).
“I had an incredible year last year, and it is crazy because every time a player is playing their best tennis — in my case that was top 40 — people always compare you to that top-40 player you were,” she reflected.
That pressure, Lys explains, took a serious toll: “I definitely had problems in some matches because I put a lot of pressure on myself, and also a lot of pressure from the outside, because people expected me to play the tennis I played last year without knowing how I was feeling, without knowing what happened to me in recent months.”
In New York, rediscovering her happiness, Eva Lys will play for the first time on one of the main show courts. Her opponent will be Mirra Andreeva, the Roland Garros champion.
