The quietly spoken teenager ended the 2024 season with her first grand slam match win at the US Open, and on the verge of the top 100 after barely being ranked inside the top 700 at the start of that year.
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Joint’s progress was so rapid that she changed her mind about attending the University of Texas, but not before forgoing $210,000 prizemoney as part of strict NCAA regulations for college athletes.
The decision was savvy. Joint went on to capture maiden WTA singles titles at Eastbourne and Rabat last year to stamp herself as a player to watch and future star, performing so well that she is seeded for the first time at the Australian Open.
Joint is also the top-ranked Australian women’s player at No.32.
“I feel a bit more pressure and expectations from other people, but it’s something I worked really hard for,” she said. “I’m very proud about it, and I think I’ve earned that spot.”
Joint celebrated Christmas with her Melbourne family for the third-straight year, knowing this would be the first Australian tennis summer where she would be a prominent figure.
More questions, more commitments and more attention in general. A British journalist quizzed her on sun protection and whether the tours do enough to promote it, the type of left-field question she will need to become accustomed to.
Joint, who is studying criminal justice at WTA university, is in a different world now, but it is the pressure she places on herself rather than what she feels externally that she is working on as much as anything else.
“You don’t really have any pressure when you’re ranked around 700,” she said.
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“You just go out there and play, with no expectations, and if you lose, it doesn’t matter, whereas now, you feel it matters. [That shifted] when I got into the top 100. You feel a bit more pressure from yourself that you’ve got to prove that you are at that level your ranking says.”
Joint’s ranking and new status meant she joined top-10 star Alex de Minaur as the spearheads of Team Australia at the United Cup, after she also achieved her goal of representing the country in Billie Jean King Cup last year.
An untimely bout of flu delayed the teenager’s start before she went head-to-head with grand slam champions Iga Swiatek and Barbora Krejcikova at the United Cup, then eventual titlist Mirra Andreeva in Adelaide.
It was not that long ago that Joint felt like an imposter to even be in the same draw as those kinds of opponents, but now she is trying to figure out ways to upset them.
Australia’s highest-ranked men’s and women’s players, Alex de Minaur and Maya Joint.Credit: Steven Siewert
“They’re amazing players,” she said.
“I need to work on my serve, and that’s a big thing I’ve noticed when I play the good players. But I think it’s great that I get to play them, and especially so early in the year because then, hopefully, I get the chance later in the year again, and I can see how I match up against them.”
Joint’s parents will be among a big throng of supporters, including her uncle, cousin and family friends, watching the No.30 seed start her campaign against Czech teenager Tereza Valentova.
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They are as amazed as everyone about how quickly their daughter has scaled the tennis world.
“We certainly didn’t expect it to be this quick,” Michael said. “To be seeded now, after two years, is unbelievable to us. We’re still pinching ourselves, and we could not be prouder.”
Joint has on- and off-court goals this year.
She wants to reach the third round at a grand slam for the first time – which could happen in the next week – and win her first singles title at WTA 500 level, but also plans to embrace her globetrotting existence more.
“It’s an exciting feeling [being seeded], especially because it’s my home event,” she said.
“The Australian fans have done an amazing job of embracing me, and supporting me. Even the first year when I played quallies, there were so many people out there supporting.”
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