"That's crazy"

Here Lys finds out how much she has earned

Eva Lys surprised everyone at the Australian Open - and her prize money surprised herself.

(Bild: APA/AFP/WILLIAM WEST, Facebook.com/Eurosport Deutschland)

She didn't expect this. In an interview after her round of 16 exit at the Australian Open against Iga Swiatek, Germany's tennis heroine Eva Lys found out how much she earned in Melbourne. She simply couldn't believe it.

As a "lucky loser", she had written the "German tennis fairy tale" that had been spun through the media ether. Having actually failed to qualify, she finally reached the last 16 of the Australian Open - there hadn't been such a story since 1988. Even though the fairytale ended brutally - Swiatek showed no mercy and served Lys off in ice-cold fashion - there was a subtly positive side effect.

252,000 euros
And this side effect is worth 252,000 euros. That's how lucrative, the equivalent of 420,000 Australian dollars, the Australian Open adventure was for the German. Lys only found out about it in a live interview. The presenter explained the windfall to the player who had just been eliminated. And she couldn't believe it, couldn't keep her mouth shut in amazement. "That's crazy," she just managed to say.

"Never got this far before"
The interviewer wanted to know why no one had told her that (while dutifully asking if the camera was rolling anyway). Lys' refreshingly carefree and honest answer: "I've never got this far in a tournament."

Of course, Lys also benefits from the fact that the prize money has increased enormously in the recent past. A total of 57 million euros will be distributed at the Australian Open this year. In comparison: in 2010 it was just a quarter.

Lys' performance in Australia also had a pleasant - non-monetary - side effect: she appears in the top 100 of the new women's world rankings for the first time.