IT has been a whirlwind year for Maya Joint. Twelve months ago, the teenager made her debut at the tour level at the US Open, her first real taste of the spotlight, only two years after the transmission of the United States of the United States to Australia.
Her shock in the first round victory on the German Laura Siegemund deserved her a collision with Madison Keys and although she was well broken, Joint attracted extra attention because of her status as a university player, which meant that she could only receive a fraction of her $ 140,000 prize money, rules that are currently the subject of a class campaign in the US.
For a shy 18-year-old, attention was understandably difficult to deal with. “I wasn’t used to it,” says Joint. “I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was quite nervous to get into an interview and I didn’t really know how to answer the most questions, but I think I have become much more comfortable.”
A recent media training course of the WTA has also helped. “I absolutely needed it,” she says. “It was just more about building trust and knowing what to say and what to say.”
The rise of Joint has been meteoric. On 684 ranked at the beginning of 2024, she was already until no. 135 when the US Open from last year started. Since she became a professional at the end of 2024, she has won two WTA Tour titles and it goes in this year’s event no. 43. Her first victory in Rabat was a joyful moment, but her second title, on grass in Eastbourne, proved her that it was not a coincidence.
“It was strange, because before that tournament I didn’t really feel very confident on grass with my movement,” she said. “I was just like that, ah, grass may not really be my surface, it’s hard to move, it’s hard to do something here. Then I had a few good victories (including one on Emma Raducanu), and I thought, oh wow. People told me that my game was suitable for grass, but I wasn’t really cool.
It could be said that Joint has already overcome the biggest challenge with which she will ever be confronted. At the age of 16 she made the daring decision to rather change from the United States to Australia, making the jump from Michigan to Brisbane. Thanks to her father, the former professional pumpkin player, Michael Joint, who represented Australia, was always an option, but one of the family that the family had really considered until that moment.
“We never really talked about it,” says Joint. “It was always like, oh, what if I played for Australia? That would have been cool. I was a bit at the USTA at the time, and then I was no longer at the USTA, I was just a private coach. I didn’t really get the training I needed, so we thought we would come to Australia and see if they would help somewhat.”
Only trusting what her father said about the country, then jointed jointed with many other young players at the National Tennis Academy in Australia in Brisbane. “I went there for two weeks as a kind of test to see how everything was like, and I really enjoyed it,” she says. “The first few weeks were absolutely very difficult. I was not used to being so far away from family, the time difference, everything was very new. But I had so many good friends there, and they really gave me the feeling that I was at home.”
The decision of Daria Kasatkina to change her faithfulness from Russia to Australia to Australia earlier this year has undoubtedly taken some pressure from the joint, who now has someone to communicate the burden. What is even more important for her, she also has a new, famous friend. “It’s really nice to have another Aussie,” she said. “I didn’t know her before and now I sometimes talk to her, and I am so of, oh my God, I know Daria Kasatkina. She is really a great person.”
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Now 19, Joint Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, a qualification of Andorra, plays in the first round in New York on Tuesday, after he made the main drawing by ranking for the third straight major. Although she lost in the first round in Australia, Paris and Wimbledon, there is high expectations of Joint in New York. After getting into the top 50, it would be easy for her to set elevated goals for the rest of the year, but she is determined not to be obsessed with rankings.
“Every day in practice we just try to get a little better at something,” she says. ‘And even if you don’t play well that day, then [it’s about] Trying to get better mentally. I think looking at ranking can be quite stressful, so just understand that it goes up and it is going down is healthy, I think. “
After studying psychology at the University of Texas, Joint is probably also better equipped than most to tackle the madness of the tennis circuit and especially the abuse that many players have experienced on social media. “I just click a little past the reactions,” she says.
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