FIf anyone in Germany still wants to fly to Melbourne for the Australian Open: Maybe it’s better not to. The event, squeezed between the Central Business District (CBD) and the Yarra River, is packed to capacity. Every day since it started nine days ago, images and videos have been sent around the tennis world showing queues of people at the entrances, in front of the stadium entrances, at the food and drink stands. The tournament director Craig Tiley even suspended the sale of the popular ground tickets; these tickets only allow you to visit the facility, but not access to the Rod Laver Arena.
But that didn’t protect him from criticism. The Herald Suna local newspaper, is already stirring up sentiment against the influential South African and collecting votes from disappointed spectators who were no longer allowed inside. The boat, it seems, is full in Melbourne Park, and initial opinions are emerging that the next step is to crush the train tracks northeast of the facility to create more space. Of course, the big rush has an advantage for Tiley: he can proudly report a new viewership record every day. From now on, a sound barrier will probably be broken regularly: the first Grand Slam tournament of the year has grown into an event that attracts 100,000 or more visitors every day. No worries, as the Australians like to say? You will see that.
:“Hate must not win”
As the best German player, Eva Lys fights for women’s rights on the tennis tour. She talks about being hunted for matches on the Internet, anonymous stalkers – and tells how her autoimmune disease affects her.
Some matches are already posing huge problems for the organizer Tennis Australia, the Australian association. When the extremely popular Filipino Alexandra Eala, 20, a rising star, played and lost against the American Alycia Parks on the so-called Party Court 6 on Monday, those interested lined up for hundreds of meters. A French reporter filmed the traffic jam and posted it online. Every game is now flooded with fans, and so it was no wonder that there was a huge crowd when Eva Lys played for the first time, as the television images showed. Tuesday had the character of a German Open in the afternoon, Lys, Jan-Lennard Struff, Laura Siegemund, plus the doubles Kevin Krawietz/Tim Pütz, they were all in action. Lys, 24, who made her public rise in Melbourne a year ago, started on Court 13.
German tennis is currently in a rather strange phase; sometimes it seems as if there is really no reason to panic, as there are enough top players who go far in tournaments. Then there’s a gasp because you’re largely in vain looking for actors with the black, red and gold flag behind their names. At this Australian Open there were only four professionals in the main field for both men and women; Tatjana Maria (against the Croatian Petra Marcinko), Ella Seidel (against Oxana Selechmetjewa from the Russian Association) and Daniel Altmaier (against the Croatian Marin Cilic) have already been eliminated.
Lys, a lucky loser in 2025, advanced from qualifying to the round of 16 and is currently 39th in the world rankings, endured an eventful duel with the experienced Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who practices the flat game and tough defense. The 24-year-old from Hamburg started focused and tidy, 6:3, she lost a bit of her confidence, 4:6, at the beginning of the third set she threw the racket in frustration. At 1:3, 15:40 she almost looked like the loser, she came back, 3:3, but the 35 year old Cirstea remained more stable and won 3:6, 6:4, 6:3. For Lys, who had a slight knee injury and was therefore bandaged, this early defeat represents a small setback; she will lose last year’s points from the round of 16 and will fall back in the world rankings. Realistic as she is, she had already considered this possibility in an SZ interview and said: “I actually say to myself: no one can take away everything that happened in 2025 and that I achieved.” The end won’t knock them down. But she has lost her nickname from last time; she was called Lucky Lys.
The great disillusionment among the German women was prevented by Laura Siegemund, who once again proved how much tennis is a mental sport and how she, who studied psychology, can break opponents internally. She was already behind 0:6, 2:5 against Lyudmila Samsonowa, at 4:5 she fended off two match points – and then annoyed the Russian so much with slice forehands and robust shouts of “Yes!” that she mentally collapsed. After the 0:6, 7:5, 6:4 victory, Siegemund waved her arms in joy, memories of Wimbledon 2025 immediately came to mind when the now 37-year-old shone with her chameleon tennis and reached the quarter-finals. “I didn’t believe in it myself anymore,” said Siegemund at Eurosport: “Then I played a few good games and it started to wobble.”
Of the eight Germans, only three professionals survived. Jan-Lennard Struff, 35, also failed against Czech Vit Kopriva 6:4, 2:6, 6:2, 3:6, 1:6. This means that among the men, only Alexander Zverev (on the German Wednesday morning against the French Alexandre Müller) and Yannick Hanfmann (against the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz on the German Wednesday night) have reached the second round.
