{"id":398493,"date":"2026-01-07T23:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398493\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T23:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:06:10","slug":"australias-emerson-jones-targeting-rankings-jump-in-2026-after-brisbane-international-showing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398493\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s Emerson Jones targeting rankings jump in 2026 after Brisbane International showing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s Emerson Jones says she wants to crack the top 100 on the WTA rankings this season, having gained confidence from a promising Brisbane International campaign.<\/p>\n

Jones reached the second round in Brisbane after stunning 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria in her opening match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 6-3, 6-3 result was Jones’s second win over a top-50 opponent in the early stages of her professional career.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old exited the tournament on Wednesday via a 6-4, 6-1 loss to world number 17 Liudmila Samsonova<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aussies go down in Brisbane<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian players Kimberly Birrell and Olivia Gadecki have fallen in the second round of the Brisbane International, along with rising star Emerson Jones.<\/p>\n

It was only the second time Jones had played a top-20 player.<\/p>\n

She lost to Kazakhstan’s world number five and 2022 Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina, in her Australian Open debut last year.<\/p>\n

Ranked 147 in the world, Jones said she wanted to build on her solid showing in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

“It is going to give me more confidence to be honest,” said Jones, who was awarded a wildcard into this month’s Australian Open main draw.<\/p>\n

“That (round-one victory) is the second top-50 win of my life, and this is my second time against a top-20 player.<\/p>\n

“These experiences and knowing that I have played these women before at this level, I can definitely come into the match knowing how they play, and it gives me confidence.<\/p>\n

“By the end of last year, my coach and I wanted to crack the top 150, and it was great that I got to do that right at the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Trying to make the top 100 [this year] is a goal we’d love to crack.”<\/p>\n

\"Emerson<\/p>\n

Emerson Jones defeated Tatjana Maria in straight sets to move through to the second round. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)<\/p>\n

In 2024, Jones rose to become Australia’s first junior girls world number one since Jelena Dokic in 1998.<\/p>\n

Australian tennis legend Ash Barty recently hailed Jones as one of the best young players she had seen.<\/p>\n

Jones said she admired Barty but hoped to forge her own path.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had that (comparison) for a while, since last year. It doesn’t really put any pressure on me,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone compares me to Ash, but Ash has her own journey, and I think she did absolutely amazing. It would be amazing to achieve what she did.<\/p>\n

“I focus on myself, and that definitely works for me.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport will have live coverage of the Australian Open from January 18.<\/p>\n

Jones will juggle her final year of high school with tennis, but is comfortable making her sporting career the top priority.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully I am going to get given a lot of opportunities this summer \u2026 and in the middle of the year,” Jones said.<\/p>\n

“School is there. It’s not my priority, but I am going to finish school, and hopefully that is the end of it for me. I don’t want to touch books after that.<\/p>\n

“I am just going to focus on my tennis. I am doing a pretty good job of it all, handling myself.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s Emerson Jones says she wants to crack the top 100 on the WTA rankings this season, having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,6571,651,178628,20336,66054,701,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-398493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-open","11":"tag-brisbane","12":"tag-brisbane-international","13":"tag-elena-rybakina","14":"tag-emerson-jones","15":"tag-queensland","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398493","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=398493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}