Maya Joint
Maya Joint is an Australian professional tennis player.
She has a career-high singles ranking by the WTA of No. 32, achieved 20 October 2025, and a best doubles ranking of No. 51, achieved 22 September 2025. Joint has won three WTA 250 tournaments: two singles titles in Rabat and Eastbourne, respectively, and one doubles title with Oksana Kalashnikova at the former. Joint is currently sponsored by Australian sportswear brand, Elite Eleven
On the ITF Junior Circuit, Joint had a combined ranking of No. 20, achieved on 29 January 2024.
Early life
Joint was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan to an Australian father, Michael Joint, and a German mother, Katja Joint. Her father left Australia at 19 years of age to pursue a professional squash career, which included stints in Argentina, Canada and Germany, where he met his future wife who played squash, tennis and badminton competitively in Germany. The couple settled in Detroit in 2004; two years before their daughter Maya was born and moved back to Australia in 2025 when Mick accepted a coaching role at the MCC Squash Club.Maya began playing tennis in kindergarten at the local Michigan courts when she would hit tennis balls with her father using a squash racquet. A dual citizen of Australia and the United States from birth, Joint was showing promising signs while competing on the ITF junior circuit and at 15 years of age began contemplating whether to switch allegiances for greater support. In mid-2023, at 16 years of age, she officially made the decision to start representing her father's country of Australia and relocated to Brisbane for better development opportunities by training at Tennis Australia's National Academy with the likes of top 60 WTA players Kim Birrell and Ajla Tomljanović as well as junior world no.1 Emerson Jones. Shortly after her 19th birthday, Joint permanently moved to Melbourne in mid-2025.
College
On 8 November 2023, Joint committed to the Texas Longhorns tennis team starting from the 2024/25 season. In August 2024, she was controversially required to forfeit $140,000 in US Open prizemoney to maintain NCAA eligibility. The ruling was widely criticised and described by American tennis great Andy Roddick as "absurd". On 26 December 2024, Joint announced she would turn professional and forego her college tennis opportunity.Professional
2021-22: Beginnings
Joint competed in her first professional tournament at 14 years of age in February 2021 at an Orlando W25 event and was eliminated in the first round of qualifying. She returned to the professional tour in late 2022 as a 16 year old and won her way into a Waco W25 event in Texas by recording two straight set qualifying victories before winning jer first professional main draw match by defeating Ukrainian Hanna Poznikhirenko 7-5 6-1. She was then defeated in the second round in three sets.2023: First ITF Circuit title
As a wildcard at the W60 Sydney Challenger event in November 2023, Joint reached her first professional singles semifinal and was defeated by 6th seed Destanee Aiava after three sets. She won her first professional ITF title a month later in her new home state of Queensland at the 2023 Gold Coast Tennis International in the doubles draw, partnering Roisin Gilheany.2024: Major debut and first win
She made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the 2024 Australian Open, in mixed doubles with Dane Sweeny as a wildcard pair.In February 2024, at 17 years of age, Joint became the youngest Australian player ever to win an ITF W75 singles title, defeating Aoi Ito at Burnie.
In July, she finished runner-up at the WTA 125 Polish Open defeating Maja Chwalińska, before losing in the final to Alycia Parks.
Ranked as the highest 18 years old at No. 136, she made her major singles debut at the 2024 US Open after qualifying and recorded her first major win over Laura Siegemund. She lost in the second round to 14th seed Madison Keys, in straight sets.
2025: First WTA Tour title, Billie Jean King Cup debut, top 40
Having announced her decision to turn professional, Joint began the 2025 season with a victory over fellow Australian Maddison Inglis at the Brisbane International, before falling to 10th seed Victoria Azarenka in three sets in the second round. The following week, she reached her first WTA semifinal at the Hobart International by defeating Olga Danilović and then fourth seed Magda Linette for her maiden win against a top-50 ranked player, before overcoming wildcard entrant Sofia Kenin in the quarterfinals. She lost in the last four to second seed Elise Mertens.Joint was given a wildcard entry into the main draw at the Australian Open, but lost to seventh seed Jessica Pegula in the first round.
Partnering Taylah Preston, Joint won her first WTA 125 doubles title at the Cancún Open, defeating Aliona Bolsova and Yvonne Cavallé Reimers in the final.
Joint qualified for the main draw at the Mérida Open and defeated Julia Grabher. As a result, Joint reached on 3 March 2025 the top 100 in the singles rankings for the first time in her career, becoming only the second teenager in the top 100, at the age of 18. She defeated world No. 20 and fifth seed Donna Vekić, conceding only three games, to make it through to her first WTA 500 quarterfinal. Joint won the first set of her last eight encounter against Elina Avanesyan but ultimately lost the match, getting bagelled in the deciding set. Despite the defeat she rose into the top 85 in the rankings.
In March, Joint qualified for the WTA 1000 tournament at Indian Wells. She lost to Sorana Cîrstea in the first round.
Joint made her debut for the Australia Billie Jean King Cup team against Kazakhstan in the 2025 qualifying round held in Brisbane in April, losing to Yulia Putintseva in the opening singles match. She then defeated Yuliana Monroy as Australia beat Colombia, although it was not enough to see them progress to the finals.
After qualifying for the Madrid Open, Joint overcame wildcard entrant Carlota Martínez Círez to secure her first WTA Tour main draw clay-court win. Aged 19 years and five days at the time, the victory also made her the youngest Australian to win a WTA 1000 match, breaking the previous record of 20 years and 330 days set by Ashleigh Barty at the 2017 Miami Open. Joint lost to 11th seed Emma Navarro in the second round. She qualified for the Italian Open, but lost to Emma Raducanu in the first round.
In May at the Morocco Open, Joint won her first WTA Tour title, defeating Jaqueline Cristian in straight sets in the final. She and partner Oksana Kalashnikova won the doubles at the same tournament, overcoming Angelica Moratelli and Camilla Rosatello in the championship match. As a result, Joint rose to new career-high rankings of world No. 53 in singles and No. 107 in doubles on 26 May 2025. That same day, she made her French Open debut but lost to fellow Australian Ajla Tomljanović, in straight sets.
Moving onto the grass-court season at the Eastbourne Open, Joint defeated Ons Jabeur, seventh seed Emma Raducanu, Anna Blinkova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the final, which she won against Alexandra Eala in three sets, saving four match points in the process, to claim her second career singles title. Three days later, she made her main-draw debut at Wimbledon, losing to 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova in the first round.
At the Cincinnati Open in August, Joint defeated Greet Minnen and 18th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia to reach the third round, where her run was ended by 12th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets. She recorded a straight sets win over qualifier Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva to make it into the second round at the US Open, at which point she lost to eighth seed Amanda Anisimova.
In September, Joint defeated qualifier Linda Fruhvirtová, seventh seed Sofia Kenin and third seed Clara Tauson to reach the semifinals at the Korea Open. She lost in the last four to top seed Iga Świątek. Partnering Caty McNally, she was runner-up in the doubles at the tournament, losing to Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in the final. The following week at the China Open, Joint overcame qualifier Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva and 17th seed Diana Shnaider to make it into the third round, where she lost to Sonay Kartal.
Seeded fifth at the Hong Kong Open in October, Joint defeated Anastasija Sevastova, Viktória Morvayová and Himeno Sakatsume to reach the semifinals, at which point she lost to Cristina Bucșa.
Playing for Australia in the BJK Cup play-offs in Hobart the following month, Joint recorded wins over Francisca Jorge and Laura Pigossi as her team defeated Portugal and Brazil respectively to top their group and advance to the 2026 qualifying round.
2026: First Grand Slam seeding
Joint began her 2026 campaign at the United Cup where she represented Australia alongside compatriot ATP world number 6 Alex de Minaur. They were defeated in the quarterfinals by the eventual champions Poland where Joint was defeated in her match against world no.2 Iga Świątek after falling ill on the eve of the tournament. Joint then travelled to South Australia to compete in the Adelaide International and defeated 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 7–6, 6–4 in the first round. In mid-January, it was confirmed that Joint would receive the 30th seeding at the 2026 Australian Open, the first Australian seed at the tournament since Ashleigh Barty at the 2022 Australian Open.Performance timelines
Singles
''Current through the 2025 Cincinnati Open.''WTA Tour finals
Singles: 2 (2 titles)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | 2025 Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem – Singles| | Rabat Grand Prix, Morocco | WTA 250 | Clay |  dts|Jun 2025 |