19-year-old rising star Maya Joint has officially become the number one ranked Aussie in women’s tennis, after ascending to number 32 worldwide.
Joint overtakes Daria Kasatkina for the number one spot, after Kasatkina officially ruled herself out for the rest of the 2025 season earlier this month, due to emotional and mental stress.
The Russian-born Kasatkina officially made the switch to represent Australia in all competitions earlier this year, which was just the tip of an intense year for the 28-year-old, who has been unable to see her family during a relentless schedule.
With Kasatkina having been absent on the circuit since September, Joint has continued to rise despite beginning the year outside the top 100.
Joint claimed her first ever singles title in Morocco in May of this year, before following that up a month later with another title, this time in England.
In August she won her first round match at the U.S. Open, and in September made the semi-finals of the Korea Open Tennis Championships, but would lose to the eventual champion and number one seed, Iga Swiatek.
Joint rose in the rankings this week from 34 to 32, while she was competing in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she won her first match before being bounced in the second round on Wednesday by number eight seed Karolina Muchova.
Kasatkina meanwhile, who slid from 22 to 35, has said she will be “energised and ready to rock” in 2026, with the opportunity to officially play in a home grand slam in Melbourne to begin the year potentially on the cards.
WTA rankings: Highest ranked Australian women’s tennis playersRankingName32Maya Joint35Daria Kasatkina89Ajla Tomljanovic97Priscilla Hon114Kimberly Birrell130Talia Gibson149Astra Sharma160Emerson Jones164Daria Saville167Maddison Inglis196Destanee Aiava203Taylah Preston224Lizette Cabrera230Olivia Gadecki250Arina Rodionova288Tina Smith385Elena Micic473Petra Hule474Jaimee FourlisHow do tennis world rankings work?
Tennis world rankings are calculated by the ATP and WTA, who award points based on a player’s performance at particular tournaments.
The further a player progresses in a sanctioned event, the more points they will be awarded.
Prestigious tournaments like Grand Slams and Masters also provide more points.
Grand Slams, for example, provide the most points on the ATP tour with 2000 awarded to the winner and 1200 to the runner-up.
Points picked up from each tournament last for one year.