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topicnews · September 13, 2024

Tennis: Eva Lys puts top seed Mertens in his place

Tennis: Eva Lys puts top seed Mertens in his place

Eva Lys caused a sensation at the WTA tournament in Monastir and knocked the top-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens out of the competition.

Still in the race: Eva Lys at the Jasmin Open in Monastir.
picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com

Eva Lys has surprisingly made it into the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Monastir. The 22-year-old defeated the top-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens 1:6, 6:2, 7:6 (7:4) at the Jasmin Open in Tunisia. In the next round she will face the winner of the duel between the Belgian Greet Minnen and Zeynep Sönmez from Turkey.

Lys got off to a very bad start, losing her first two service games and then not finding her way back into the set. Mertens, number 32 in the world rankings and thus 94 places higher than her opponent, used her third set point to make her third break.

Ten games in a row

In the second set, Mertens (28) was again 2-0 ahead, but Lys fought back against the former semi-finalist of the Australian Open (2018) and started a run of ten consecutive wins. In the third set, the tables turned again, Mertens made a 0-4 bet, but Lys kept her nerve. After 2:36 hours, she used her first match point and won the tiebreak 7-4.