World No. 66 Eva Lys describes the adjustments she had to make to her career after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease as "super weird," but admits she is happy to have it figured out.
Lys, who will celebrate her 24th birthday in January, was diagnosed with a rheumatic autoimmune disease called spondyloarthritis in 2020. The condition usually causes pain and stiffness around the joint and spine area. While the German received the diagnosis from the doctors in 2020, it wasn't until last year that she publicly decided to disclose her condition.
After opening up about spondyloarthritis, Lys enjoyed a dream Australian Open run when she made her first Grand Slam round-of-16 as a wildcard in some crazy circumstances. By doing so, she became the first lucky loser to reach the second week at the Australian Open since 1988.
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At the ongoing China Open in Beijing, Lys made her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal before losing to Coco Gauff. As a reward, the German is guaranteed to improve 18 spots on next week's WTA rankings list and be ranked inside the top-50 for the first time in her career.
Lys: With my condition, the less is better sometimes... Which is a weird feeling
In an interview with The Athletic, the 23-year-old said that as a little girl, she was taught that the harder she worked, the more it would pay off. But after being diagnosed with spondyloarthritis, she had to make certain adjustments and literally work less - something she found "super weird."
"We just had to adjust and for me, actually, less is better sometimes. I love to grind hard. I love to go over the edge sometimes. But sometimes I cant do that because then I wouldnt be able to play the next week. So, yeah, its a weird feeling to know the less, the better. Its something we had to learn, not only myself but also my team. It definitely took a while," Lys explained.
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"The first years were really, really tough, like up until last year. But, yeah, I changed a lot. I adjusted small details with my team. I can do everything all the other tennis players can do, I just sometimes need to take a little bit time from my body and recover a little longer.
