{"id":386559,"date":"2026-01-02T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T09:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/386559\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T09:40:09","slug":"maya-joint-hit-with-illness-ahead-of-australias-united-cup-opener-against-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/386559\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Joint hit with illness ahead of Australia’s United Cup opener against Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s top-ranked female player Maya Joint has been laid low by illness in a blow ahead of the host nation’s opening United Cup clash with Norway.<\/p>\n

Joint \u2014 ranked 32nd in the world \u2014 was ordered to rest on Friday, missing Australia’s scheduled media and practice sessions.<\/p>\n

Team captain Lleyton Hewitt remains hopeful the 19-year-old rising star will be able to take her place in Saturday night’s match against Malene Helgo.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t spoken to her because she’s resting, so [she’s] just trying to get as much sleep and rest as possible today,” Hewitt told reporters in Sydney on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt (pictured) is hoping Joint is able to make a swift recovery. (AAP Image: Mark Evans)<\/p>\n

“Hopefully it’s only a 24-hour thing and she can bounce back tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

Hewitt said Joint, who switched allegiance from the United States to Australia in 2023, hit well on the practice court on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“Confidence-wise, I don’t think myself or her team are too worried about how she’s hitting the ball and moving and playing at the moment,” Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

“We’re just trying to give her the best chance of having 100 per cent energy when she goes out there to play.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“Fingers crossed she gets the chance. If not, then we’ll re-evaluate.”<\/p>\n

If Joint is unavailable, Hewitt has Maddison Inglis and Storm Hunter to call upon.<\/p>\n

Joint started last year ranked outside the world’s top 100 and entered the Australian Open as a wildcard, exiting in the first round.<\/p>\n

The Brisbane-based right-hander is now the top-ranked Australian on the WTA circuit, having won titles at Morocco and Eastbourne, and reached the second round of the US Open as a qualifier.<\/p>\n

Joint told AAP at the end of the previous season that she was determined to move beyond the first round of the 2026 Australian Open.<\/p>\n

“My goal would be to make the third round of a grand slam,” Joint said of her 2026 ambitions.<\/p>\n

“That’s a big goal \u2026 if I work on my own game then other goals will set themselves up.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s top-ranked female player Maya Joint has been laid low by illness in a blow ahead of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,37660,31229,85,747,148639],"class_list":["post-386559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lleyton-hewitt","tag-maya-joint","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}