The Fairy Tale Story Of The Aussie Open Is Eva Lys, Who Went From Not Being In The Tournament At All To Earning A Life-Changing $420,000

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Tennis is a fascinating sport in the sense that you have to be totally okay with losing. In some instances losing is a good thing. For example, losing in the 4th round of a major tournament should be viewed as a great achievement to many. Obviously to the top level players it's failure to not go deeper, but to most of the field it's a dream. That can certainly be said for Germany's Eva Lys who became the fairy tale story of the tournament. 

Quick refresher: If you are not ranked high enough to automatically be placed in a tournament, you have to try and enter through the qualifying rounds. For a slam you must win three matches in a row against fellow qualifying hopefuls to claim a spot in the tournament. Those that lose in the final round of qualifying can still sneak into the dance if someone already in bows out with injury at the last minute. These people are known as "lucky losers," but their fate sometimes isn't known until the very last second. In Eva Lys' case she found out she was in the main draw of the Aussie Open 10 minutes before her match, as Anna Kalinskaya withdrew because of injury. Eva's bags were packed with a flight out of the country scheduled for the following morning. All of a sudden here's your court, good luck. 

Eva Lys took on that whirlwind of a challenge and ran with it. She rattled off three wins and found herself in the round of 16 of a grand slam against one of the world's best Iga Swiatek. 

It was at that point she met her match, as Iga wiped the floor with her. Iga's been doing that to pretty much everybody so that shouldn't be viewed as a disappointing loss. She took the moment in stride and had a great reaction to winning her first game in the second set, avoiding the double bagel (two 6-0 sets). 

She even took a moment to laugh later on that someone else was getting bagelled as well. 

Instead of being down on herself, she realized it was a life changing week. From being ranked outside the top 100 and not making the tournament at all to earning a $420,000 check, being 91st in the world, and having a ton of new fans. 

Hopefully we get to see a lot more of Eva Lys moving forward.