Note: Throughout December, wtatennis.com will be running a series of interviews with players who are poised to make a mark in 2026 after impressive comebacks or breakthroughs in 2025.
In late November, rising star Emerson Jones trailed Talia Gibson by six points in the Australian Pro Tour wild-card race heading into the ITF W75 Playford International. On the line, a wild-card spot in the 2026 Australian Open.
Two weeks before, Jones had taken the lead following a semifinal run at the ITF W50 in Brisbane. However, Gibson reclaimed the lead by winning the W75 title in Sydney the following week, defeating Jones 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
The Playford draw would see their paths converge in the semifinals, and once Jones and Gibson advanced, it set up a winner-take-all match for a wild-card spot in the season’s first Grand Slam. Jones capitalized, defeating Gibson 6-4, 6-4, and went on to win the final.
“To be honest, I didn’t really think about it because I was in the middle of a tournament,” Jones said. “I was in the semifinals of a 75 and I just thought it was great.”
From junior No. 1 to the top 150
The upcoming Australian Open will be the former junior No. 1’s second straight appearance in the main draw, and it marks another sign of the 17-year-old’s steady rise to potentially being Australia’s next biggest star. A finalist in the junior girls’ singles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2024 and semifinalist in junior girls’ singles at Roland Garros in 2025, Jones is currently ranked No. 151 after making the switch from junior to professional level.
Heading into a three-tournament Australian stretch — Brisbane, Sydney and Playford — that would decide the wild card, Jones set a clear target: crack the Top 150. She arrived in Brisbane ranked No. 189.
Jones went 12-2 across the swing, capped by a successful title defense in Playford and climbed to No. 150 in the rankings.
“It was definitely hard stepping into women’s, especially coming newly from juniors,” said Jones, who was recently honored as Tennis Australia’s Junior Female Athlete of the Year for the third straight year. “It was hard to step away from being junior World No. 1 to coming into the women’s not really ranked very high. I’m really happy with how I got my ranking up.”
Facing the elite in Adelaide and Melbourne
Jones said she wants to break into the top 100 by the end of 2026. At just 17 years old, she’s still hasn’t played frequently at the WTA Tour level but has noticed rising stars acclimate to that level.
“Some of the girls like Iva [Jovic], Maya [Joint], they’re all stepping into the women’s, and I think they’re getting the hang of playing that at that level,” Jones said. “I haven’t really experienced that much yet, but I think it’s going to be great.
“Being 150 and 100, there’s still a bit of a step, but I think if I can really do well in the bigger tournaments coming up, I can try.”
Jones made her WTA Tour main-draw debut last January at the WTA 500 Adelaide International and earned her biggest win of her career with a 6-4, 6-0 win over then-No. 37 Xinyu Wang in the first round. She then fell to Daria Kasatkina in the second round, but pushed the No. 3 seed in a 5-7, 3-6 defeat.
Top-ranked junior Jones, 16, breezes to victory in WTA main-draw debut
The first-round win in Adelaide led into her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the 2025 Australian Open, where she received a wild card. Her ranking jumped from No. 371 to No. 293.
Jones drew Elena Rybakina for her first-round match in Melbourne. It was a tough task for Jones, then 16, as Rybakina cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory, but the experience was invaluable squaring off against the 2022 Wimbledon champion and 2023 Australian Open finalist.
“I definitely learned a lot playing her,” Jones said. “I still, obviously, am really happy that I got to play her, because I get to know the level and how someone top five or in the top 10 play. I definitely think it’s great to know that from a young age, too.”
Emerson Jones, left, shakes hands with Grand Slam champion Elena Rybakina at the 2025 Australian Open. Rybakina won the first-round match 6-1, 6-1. (Jimmie48/WTA)
A seat at the table with the world stage
Following Melbourne, Jones returned to the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour circuit playing tournaments in Australia and Asia. In May, she won a W35 title in Fukuoka, Japan.
A couple months earlier, Jones was named Australia’s “Orange Girl” for the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers. It’s an Aussie tradition that gives a promising young player the chance to train alongside the national team and be immersed on the world stage. Joint, Ashleigh Barty and Storm Hunter have been previous recipients.
That kickstarted a strong summer, where Jones reached the semifinal in Roland Garros in the junior singles draw. A month later at Wimbledon, she fell in the third round of qualifying for the main draw but ultimately reached the quarterfinals in juniors. She also advanced to the third round of qualifying for the US Open women’s singles.
Preparing for the next step
Ahead of 2026, Jones is in Brisbane for the offseason, preparing for her first tournament of the year. Her daily schedule consists of on-court practice, plyometrics, fitness and conditioning sessions. Jones said she is putting an emphasis on her serve and return in training because she’ll be facing older and more physically stronger players than before.
“I’m coming up against bigger, older and stronger women than me,” Jones said. “Serve has always been one of my things. But now that I’m stepping into women’s, I’m concentrating on it way more and same with my returns. There’s a lot of big servers on the circuit, so definitely those two things.”
A Queensland native, Jones’ first tournament of the year will be held right in her backyard as she received a wild card for the WTA 500 Brisbane International. Jones didn’t play in Brisbane last year, rather playing in Adelaide, so the wild-card entry is thrilling for her given it’s the same grounds she trains on.
“It’s so exciting,” Jones said of playing in Brisbane. “I can have my family [and] my friends come watch, and I can be on the court that I literally train so it’s super exciting for me.”
Jones is still young but she’s ready for the next step. She said she’s hoping to play in the Asian swing next fall, rather than playing W100s in North America that she did in 2025.
Her competition will likely strengthen with a gradual increase in rank, but it’s something she’s excited about. Jones wants to showcase her aggressiveness on the court regardless of who she shares the court with. She has watched closely as the 19-year-old Joint rose to Australian No. 1 and hopes she can be the next big name in Australian tennis.
“The more I can play at that level, the more it will improve me [and my game],” Jones said. “It’s going to be great to keep playing someone with such a high level for me.”