Australia, 19 March 2024 | Leigh Rogers

At 17 years old, Maya Joint is already making a major impact on the pro tour.

The promising Australian has won two ITF singles titles and halved her ranking in the opening months of the 2024 season.

Joint, who trains at Tennis Australia’s National Tennis Academy in Brisbane, finished 2023 ranked world No.773.

She began her 2024 season at a WTA 125 tournament in Canberra, where as a wildcard entry she stunned former world No.5 Sara Errani in the opening round and went onto reach the quarterfinals.

Joint also made the most of a wildcard into the Australian Open 2024 qualifying competition, where she advanced to the final round and extended eventual semifinalist Dayana Yastremska to three sets.

Across these two events, she tallied four wins against top-200 players.

Joint also progressed to the third round in the girls’ singles competition at Melbourne Park, where she lost to the eventual champion.

The 17-year-old then produced an impressive run at an ITF 75 tournament at Burnie in February, defeating five higher-ranked opponents to scoop her first Australian Pro Tour singles title.

With this effort, Joint became the first Australian teen to win a title at this level and skyrocketed into the world’s top 400.

Another milestone was achieved in late February, with Joint progressing to her first WTA doubles quarterfinal as a wildcard in the American city of Austin (partnering Ukrainian Sabina Zeynalova).

She has spent the past fortnight competing at ITF tournaments in the Dominican Republic, where she won seven of her eight singles matches. This included a title-winning run this week.

This sees Joint joins exclusive company as just the sixth woman representing Australia to win multiple singles titles at ITF 25 level or higher before her 18th birthday.

As she edges closer to breaking into the world’s top 300, Joint believes playing with “no pressure” is the secret to her success.

“I’m just trying to play my game,” said the world No.324, whose season record on the professional tour now stands at 18 wins from 23 matches.

“I just go out there and see what I can do.”

Joint, who achieved a career-best junior ranking of world No.20 in January, has thrived since relocating to Australia in mid-2023.

She grew up in the American state of Michigan and switched allegiance to Australia, the birth place of her father, last year.

“I’ve improved a lot in the past few months,” Joint said. “Since I’ve come to Australia, it’s just been so good. Everything in my game has gotten better.

“Training with some of the top Australian women’s players in Brisbane has been amazing. I didn’t have those opportunities back in Michigan.”

Joint revealed in January she has been accepted into the University of Texas, where she plans to study psychology and criminology.

“I’ll definitely play some more pro events, but my plan is still to go to college in August,” she said of her 2024 goals.

“I’m really interested in psychology, just because of the mind aspect of tennis and seeing what I can do better, and I’ve watched so many crime shows and I listen to true-crime podcasts, so I find criminology so intriguing.”

Playing professional tennis remains her long-term goal, noting “my dream has always been to play in the Grand Slams”.

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