It has been a whirlwind year for Maya Joint. Twelve months ago, the teenager made her Tour-level debut at the US Open, her first real taste of the limelight, just two years after switching allegiance from the United States to Australia.<\/p>\n
Her shock first-round win over Germany\u2019s Laura Siegemund earned her a clash with Madison Keys and though she was well-beaten, Joint drew extra attention due to her status as a college player, which meant she could receive only a fraction of her $140,000 prize money, rules that are currently the subject of a class action lawsuit in the US.<\/p>\n
For a shy 18-year-old, the attention was understandably tough to deal with. \u201cI wasn\u2019t used to it,\u201d Joint says. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know what I was doing. I was pretty nervous coming into any interview and I didn\u2019t really know how to answer most of the questions, but I think I\u2019ve gotten a lot more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent media training course put on by the WTA, has also helped. \u201cI definitely needed it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was just more about confidence building and knowing what to say and what not to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joint\u2019s rise has been meteoric. Ranked 684 at the start of 2024, she was already up to No 135 when last year\u2019s US Open began. Since turning professional at the end of 2024, she has won two WTA Tour titles and goes into this year\u2019s event ranked No 43. Her first win in Rabat<\/a> was a joyous moment but her second title, on grass in Eastbourne<\/a>, proved to her that it wasn\u2019t a fluke.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was crazy because before that tournament I wasn\u2019t really feeling very confident on grass with my movement,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just like, ah, grass maybe isn\u2019t really my surface, it\u2019s hard to move, it\u2019s hard to do anything on here. Then I had a couple good wins on it (including one over Emma Raducanu), and I thought, oh wow. People did tell me that my game was suited for grass, but I was like, ah, I don\u2019t know. And then it just kept going. It was an amazing tournament. With the first title, I thought, oh, I could be lucky, I had a good draw. But then the second title, I felt like, oh, that\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Joint won the Eastbourne Open earlier this year. Photograph: Ashley Western\/Colorsport\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n It could be argued that Joint has already overcome the biggest challenge she will ever face. At the age of 16, she made the bold decision to switch allegiance from the United States to Australia, making the leap from Michigan to Brisbane. Thanks to her father, the former professional squash player, Michael Joint, representing Australia was always an option but not one the family had really considered until that point.<\/p>\n \u201cWe never really talked about it that seriously,\u201d Joint says. \u201cIt was always like, oh, what if I played for Australia? That would have been cool. I was with the USTA a little bit at that time, and then I wasn\u2019t with the USTA anymore, I was just with a private coach. I wasn\u2019t really getting the training that I needed, so we thought we\u2019d reach out to Australia and see if they could help in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n Relying only on what her father said about the country, Joint then joined up with many other young players at Australia\u2019s National Tennis<\/a> Academy in Brisbane. \u201cI went there for two weeks as kind of a trial to see how everything was, and I really liked it,\u201d she says. \u201cThe first couple of weeks were definitely very difficult. I was not used to being that far away from family, the time difference, everything was very new. But I had so many good friends there, and they really made me feel like I was at home.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision by Daria Kasatkina to switch her allegiance from Russia to Australia<\/a> earlier this year has undoubtedly taken some pressure off Joint, who now has someone to share the burden with. More importantly for her, she also has a new, famous, friend. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice to have another Aussie,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know her at all before and now I talk to her sometimes, and I\u2019m like, oh my God, I know Daria Kasatkina. She\u2019s a really great person.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Now 19, Joint plays Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, a qualifier from Andorra, in round one in New York on Tuesday, having made the main draw by ranking for the third straight major. Though she lost in round one in Australia, Paris and at Wimbledon, there are high hopes for Joint in New York. Having broken into the top 50, it would be easy for her to start setting lofty goals for the rest of the year, but she is determined not to obsess about rankings.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day in practice we are just trying to get a little bit better at something,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd even if you\u2019re not playing well that day, then [it\u2019s about] trying to get better at something mentally. I think looking at ranking can be pretty stressful, so just understanding that it\u2019s going to go up and it\u2019s going to go down is healthy, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Having studied psychology at the University of Texas, Joint is also probably better equipped than most to deal with the craziness of the tennis circuit and especially the abuse many players have experienced on social media. \u201cI just kind of click past the comments,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a whirlwind year for Maya Joint. 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