The German number one puts up a long fight against former Wimbledon winner Jelena Rybakina but is ultimately defeated.
Eva Lys missed out on a surprise victory against former Wimbledon winner Jelena Rybakina at the clay court tournament in Rome. The German number one from Hamburg lost 6-7 (3-7), 2-6 to the Kazakh in the second round. Lys squandered too many chances in the first set of her first match against Rybakina, who has been in poor form recently.
This means that Laura Siegemund is the last German player left in the WTA tournament at the Foro Italico. The 37-year-old from Metzingen entered the second round as a lucky loser and surprised everyone with a victory over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti. In the third round, Siegemund will face former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia).
Lys had some prominent support against Rybakina: Mats Hummels, 2014 soccer world champion and currently a professional player for AS Roma, sat in the 23-year-old’s box. She kept the match open for a long time, but in the tiebreak of the first set, Rybakina took control with her powerful tennis and did not relinquish it in the second set.
Despite the defeat, Lys continues to climb the world rankings. Before the start of the tournament in Rome, she was ranked 63rd. Before the French Open in Paris (starting May 25), she could be ranked among the top 60 players in the world.
