\u201cDate a tennis player? No. Because I know what it takes to be in this business. It consumes so much of your life. I\u2019m trying to keep my private life far away from the sport,\u201d the 24-year-old German told CLAY<\/strong> in an interview in Melbourne during the Australian Open 2026.<\/p>\n Lys captivates her followers by sharing on Instagram her love for fashion, time with friends and her presence at music festivals. But that same exposure also makes her an easy target for criticism when results don\u2019t go her way.<\/p>\n \u201cI show how much I enjoy my life\u2026 A lot of people hate seeing women having fun. I just say \u2018Fuck the haters!\u2019 If I can help even one person to be themselves and not care about the hate, I\u2019ll be the happiest person ever,\u201d the world No. 72 told CLAY<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Authentic, open-minded and honest, Lys believes more light should be shed on homosexuality in men\u2019s tennis, says she would hear offers from OnlyFans, as some players already have, and reflects on how she manages her mental health, which was not in a good place at times last year.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to be mentally a badass to be able to get to the top,\u201d said the Ukrainian-born player.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n \u2013 Do you miss home when you\u2019re on the road?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 Yeah. I\u2019m usually one of the first to come to the events, because I always need a little bit more time for my body to adjust to the climate and everything. So as soon as I lose, I just want to go home. Except if I\u2019m in Melbourne or in New York. I\u2019m happy whenever I get to see my family back in Hamburg.<\/p>\n \u2013 This interview is not going to be about tennis. We are not going to talk about your forehand and how you are adjusting your backhand.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 I like that, I love to talk. A lot of journalists have interesting personalities, they could bring so many interesting topics to press conferences, but the only thing they ask about is tennis, which is obviously the job we do. But I feel like a lot of interviews could go in so many different ways \u2014 talking about what a player is like, their character. Because I feel like a lot of people don\u2019t even know how a tennis player is in real life.<\/p>\n \u2013 We like to get to know the characters in-depth.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 That\u2019s what fans like. At the end of the day, you see the person on TV, and you connect with them not only because of what they do in the sport, but because of who they are. Maybe you share interests, or a personality trait. I usually like funny people. So if you don\u2019t know how a player is off the court, it\u2019s tough to connect and build a fan base. That\u2019s what I always try to tell to everyone and push it to the WTA.<\/p>\n \u2013 Before the start of the Australian Open you had a pretty cool moment: well dressed, wearing fancy sunglasses during a Lacoste event, posing for the cameras with Grigor Dimitrov on one side and Novak Djokovic on the other.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 It was nice. Both Novak and Grigor are great personalities. I\u2019m really happy that I\u2019m working with Lacoste. It\u2019s definitely been a big milestone in my career. It was my first activation with them, my first event. And honestly, I just got a really nice outfit. Have you seen the shoes? They were amazing! I told the designers: \u201cListen guys, if you want to go crazy with me, you can.\u201d I feel like that\u2019s missing in tennis. Coco (Gauff) is doing it, Naomi (Osaka) is doing it<\/a>, but there are so many more players who could.<\/p>\n \u2013 Do you dream of becoming a fashion icon in tennis?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 That\u2019s a strong way of saying it. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever talk about myself like that. To take the next step off court, I know that I have to perform well on court and thats my goal. I feel that I can now express something I always wanted to express, especially with fashion and showing my own personality.<\/p>\n \u2013 You\u2019ve spoken about breaking the stigma that surround female athletes. Can you go deeper into that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 It comes from how we grow up. You\u2019re taught that you have to play well to deserve having fun. If you win, you can go out, meet friends. If you lose, you don\u2019t deserve it \u2014 you have to go back to work. But that\u2019s not reality. Instagram is not always the life you are living, you show what you wanna show. And I show how much I enjoy my life.<\/p>\n \u2013 And that makes you an easy target.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u2013 A lot of people like my style, but also it makes me very attackable when I don\u2019t perform well. People don\u2019t see that I\u2019m practicing seven hours a day. They don\u2019t see the work of 20 years. And as soon as you lose, they say: \u201cFocus more on tennis, stop posting, stop going out.\u201d People judge a lot. When I raised that topic on the podcast with Caro Garc\u00eda<\/a>, the funny thing is that most of the negative comments I got don\u2019t come from athletes, and they don\u2019t come from females. It\u2019s mostly men. At the end of the day, if you\u2019re a woman having fun outside of work, the stigma is still stronger. And I just want to break that, tell people to do whatever they like to do. I do whatever makes me happy.<\/p>\n \u2013 What makes you different on a tour that many times can feel so structured?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 I\u2019m just trying to be myself. I\u2019ve always had it a bit different because of my health, my body. I\u2019ve always wanted to be physically stronger, tougher, but arthritis always got in the way. So I had to find balance. I needed something outside tennis to stay sane. Everyone has struggles. Mine is arthritis, someone else has something different. For me, the most important thing is joy. If I\u2019m not having fun, enjoying myself, I don\u2019t play well. If I put too much pressure in myself, if I\u2019m nervous and I don\u2019t sleep well because I want to perform well in the next match\u2026 I won\u2019t. I suffer in practice, three hours on court every day. As soon as I did my work, my fitness\u2026 I can go out and do whatever I want.<\/p>\n \u2013 How much do WTA players go out and party like most of the people do?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 Some do. Players don\u2019t normally talk about it openly. Some others don\u2019t do that at all. They are completely locked in, they are only focusing on tennis and don\u2019t do anything besides that. And that\u2019s ok. Few girls, as soon as the tournament is finished, they like to go out, have dinner, maybe party a bit. You will see me going out dinner, however I\u2019m not big into partying. In tennis you need to find discipline, otherwise you lose fitness, you loose too much if you stop an entire week. But everyone needs to find their own way.<\/p>\n \u2013 You\u2019re one of the top 50 in the world, you have a captivating personality, and you\u2019re also seen as both attractive and intelligent. How do you deal with that kind of attention without letting it go to your head?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 (laugh) I feel very lucky to have a great team around me. I never really think about those things. I just try to be myself and share my experiences. My family keeps me very humble. When I go home, I\u2019m still the same Eva. I wanna show girls they can dress the way they like. Women get so much hate for everything they do. A lot of people hate seeing women having fun. I just say \u201cFuck the haters!\u201d If I can help even one person to be themselves and not care about the hate, I\u2019ll be the happiest person ever.<\/p>\n \u2013 Do many tennis players get into your DMs?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 (laughter) I cannot answer that. I\u2019m gonna leave it with no comments.<\/p>\n \u2013 Would you date a tennis player?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 No.<\/p>\n \u2013 Why not?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 Because I know what it takes to be in this business. It consumes so much of your life. I\u2019m trying to keep my private life far away from the sport. For me, it\u2019s refreshing to have friends and interests outside of the sport. But you never know! For now, it\u2019s a no.<\/p>\n \u2013 More and more players are joining OnlyFans:<\/a> Nick Kyrgios, Alex Muller, Pedro Mart\u00ednez, Arina Rodionova and Panna Udvardy are some of them. Have you received any approach from the platform?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 You gotta ask my management! (laughter) I honestly don\u2019t know, not that I heard of. Good for them.<\/p>\n \u2013 Would you like to do something like that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 That\u2019s a good question. I always like to listen what brands have to offer. For now, I\u2019m happy with all the brands I\u2019m working with, so can\u2019t really say that I would love to work with someone else.<\/p>\n \u2013 Are you getting a lot of offers from sponsors?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s getting through the roof, but you can definitely see that people started noticing me. That makes me happy. At the end of the day I\u2019ve always wanted to make money with the tennis and everything that comes with it. I\u2019m coming closer and closer to just being independent\u2026and that\u2019s a nice feeling.<\/p>\n \u2013 <\/em><\/strong>What do you make of the fact that homosexuality in men\u2019s tennis has long been seen as a taboo, and is only now starting to open up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 Recently, a Swiss player came out (21-year-old Mika Brunold)\u2026 It\u2019s definetly one topic that we haven\u2019t heard from the male side. It\u2019s there, it\u2019s an important topic. I was very happy to know that players are feeling more comfortable to come out. It\u2019s a tough situation for them, so it\u2019s very brave of them. We need to talk more about it. It\u2019s slowly getting raised, but the sport needs to voice it more.<\/p>\n \u2014 Do you feel the tour allows players to be themselves?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 All the tennis players on tour identify so much with the results they have: we get paid if we win. If we lose, we don\u2019t get anything. If your ranking sinks your self confidence and your mental health suffers so much with that. A lot of players have the same feelings. Everyone loves you when you are winning, but if you are losing, no one is there. That\u2019s why you need to have a good team around you.<\/p>\n \u2013 Are players taking care of their mental health?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 It\u2019s getting better. The sport is faster, more physical, but what really decides matches is often the mental side. And off court, mental health is really important. A lot of players have to work on their mental health. I\u2019m doing it. I go to therapy. Last year I had moments were I wasn\u2019t doing well mentally. Pressure from yourself and from the outside\u2026 so many aspects that gets us nervous. That\u2019s why I have insane respect for every who is out there in the top 10, top 20. Either if it\u2019s ATP or WTA\u2026 because you need to be mentally a badass to be able to do all of that. When a colleague it\u2019s in a bad place I always try to be there and support them.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this interview with Eva Lys, go check many more conversations with the great stars of the tour on this link to our site<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you love CLAY?\u00a0Support us on Ko-fi<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0X (Twitter)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong> \/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js<\/a> If you make a living hitting a fuzzy yellow ball around the world with a racket, Eva Lys might not be interested in dating you. \u201cDate a tennis player? No. Because I know what it takes to be in this business. It consumes so much of your life. I\u2019m trying to keep my private life … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Eva-Lys-and-why-she-wouldnt-date-a-tennis-player.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28241,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28239\/revisions\/28241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Interview with Eva Lys<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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