Eva Lys, the WTA revelation who wants to make tennis more fun: "I am creative, we must show more personalities"

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There is a new intruder in the top-50 who awakens incredible sympathy within the WTA locker room. Few players frown when asked about Eva Lys, whose contagious smile has taken over the women's circuit. At 23, the progression of this German tennis player, with a bold style focusing on taking the ball early and distributing play from the baseline, has been slow but steady, taking small steps and culminating in an undeniable breakthrough in 2025 within the elite.

Because Eva Lys will leave WTA Beijing 2025 breaking into the top-50, a once unreachable goal she has achieved through sheer hard work. Her outgoing personality and significant presence on social media must not overshadow the tough battle that Lys has been fighting for a long time with the most challenging aspect of sports: a rheumatic autoimmune disease called spondyloarthritis, causing pain and stiffness in the joints near the spine and lower limbs.

The diagnosis in 2020 changed Eva's approach to this sport. It was a gradual process: she needed a lot of time to adapt her workload to the consequences of this disease, forcing her to limit sustained efforts and follow a roadmap perhaps not well-suited for the titanic efforts that athletes typically demonstrate their love for competition.

"When I was growing up, my family always talked about how hard work pays off. The more you work, the better you become. This is the typical mindset. For me, however, sometimes less is more. I love working very hard, sometimes pushing beyond my limit, but I realize that if I do that, I couldn't play the following week. Knowing that less is more is a very strange feeling. It is something we have learned, not only me, but my entire team, over time. The first years were very tough, until last year, but I have changed some small things with my team, small details that are working out", she recently confessed to The Athletic.

Workloads, training volumes, and diet are some of those "small things" that Eva mentions. Aspects whose preparation does not differ much from that of her colleagues, but must be spaced out over time, allowing for greater recovery time between matches or tournaments. This could be a clear impediment, but her performances in major tournaments have become the perfect springboard to offset it: reaching the second week at the Australian Open (as a lucky loser) and now becoming a first-time WTA 1000 quarterfinalist, clear arguments for breaking into the top fifty.

A DISTINCT PERSONALITY AND A CLEAR REQUEST TO THE WTA

Not only does Lys' style of play show a different flair, departing from the power-hitting profile and emphasizing timing to strike from top to bottom: her personality is compelling, with a penchant for languages (she speaks German, Ukrainian, Russian, and English and is currently learning Spanish) and social media (her TikTok account is a magnet for brands, with partnerships including La Roche Posay and Porsche). Eva sees herself as "creative," using the internet as a platform: her videos on the Chinese platform showcase the daily life of a player from a different perspective, catering to younger generations, aiming to connect the audience with the personalities behind the players.

"I love making videos, taking photos, and seeing everything from a different perspective. I like presenting tennis from a different angle, being a spokesperson for the personalities in the circuit. I feel that not many people show our lives with a different twist. I also enjoy fashion and try to incorporate it into my videos; I want to take my hobbies to another level. And I try not to focus too much on tennis when I'm off the court because otherwise, I would go crazy", the German stated with a laugh.

Lys was born in Kiev but moved to Hamburg at the age of two: perhaps her multicultural background, that exposure to different worlds from such an early age, causes one of her main missions to be elevating not only her own content but also that of her colleagues, in an environment where, in her view, the WTA doesn't do enough: "We have amazing personalities on the circuit who, perhaps, are not shown enough. You see the tennis player, but off the court, they are completely different. I like to show that we not only have cool tennis players, but also cool people behind the scenes." Her next target will be Coco Gauff, another step up for one of the names destined to shape the brand of women's tennis in the next decade. Welcome to the elite, Eva.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Eva Lys, la revelación de la WTA que quiere volver más divertido el tenis: "Soy creativa, hay que mostrar más personalidades"