The Albany Gazette - 'I had 10 minutes': Lys makes most of Australian Open second chance

The 23-year-old "lucky loser" defeated France's Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 on Thursday in the second round, falling onto her back on court after sealing victory.

"I don't think I have any words to describe it yet," Lys, who is ranked 128th in the world, said.

It has been a whirlwind few days for Ukraine-born Lys.

She lost in the final round of qualifying in Melbourne last week, her hopes of making the first major of the year seemingly over.

But she hung about on the off-chance that another player would drop out and 13th seed Anna Kalinskaya did just that on Tuesday, suddenly giving Lys another Australian Open life.

She duly defeated home player Kimberly Birrell in straight sets in the first round of the main draw.

"I found out about it 10 minutes before the match so I didn't have time to get nervous," Lys, who lost in the first round at the Australian Open two years ago, said.

A "lucky loser" is a player who loses in qualifying but later gets a ticket into the main draw following another player's withdrawal, usually because of illness or injury.

"I was panicking a little bit because I didn't really prepare my drinks," said Lys, who was born in Kyiv and moved to Germany with her family when she was two years old.

"I didn't have match clothes on so I went to the locker room, got changed straight away, and then they called my name.

"So no warm-up, no anything. Maybe that's the key for the next match."

Lys faces Romania's 82nd-ranked Jaqueline Cristian in the third round.

(J.Torres--TAG)