Maya Joint

Joint was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan to an Australian father, Michael (Mick) 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.

Joint 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 17 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 (Queensland) 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.

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 prize money 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 forgo her college tennis opportunity.

On the ITF Junior Circuit, Joint had a combined ranking of No. 20, achieved on 29 January 2024.

2021-23: Professional debut, first ITF title

Joint competed in her first professional tournament at 14 years of age in February 2021 at a W25 event in Orlando, Florida but was eliminated in the first round of qualifying. She returned to the professional tour in November 2022 as a 16 year old and qualified for a W15 event in Waco, Texas, and then won her first professional main-draw match by defeating Ukrainian Hanna Poznikhirenko, before losing in the second round to Tian Fangran.

As a wildcard entrant at the W60 Sydney Challenger event in November 2023, Joint reached her first professional semifinal and was defeated by sixth seed Destanee Aiava in three sets. She won her first ITF title a month later at the Gold Coast Tennis International in the doubles, partnering Roisin Gilheany.

2024: Major debut and first win

Joint made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the Australian Open, in mixed doubles with Dane Sweeny as a wildcard pair. In February, at 17 years of age, Joint became the youngest Australian player ever to win a W75 singles title, defeating Aoi Ito at Burnie.

In July, she finished runner-up at the WTA 125 Polish Open defeating Maja Chwalińska in the semifinals, before losing in the final to Alycia Parks. Ranked at No. 136, she made her major singles debut at the US Open after qualifying and defeated Laura Siegemund. She lost in the second round to 14th seed Madison Keys in straight sets.

2025: Two WTA titles, 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 (and second youngest after Mirra Andreeva). 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. She 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: Two WTA 500 doubles titles, singles struggles

Joint began her 2026 campaign at the United Cup where she represented Australia alongside ATP world No. 6, Alex de Minaur. They were eliminated 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. Next she competed at the Adelaide International and defeated 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and fellow Australian Ajla Tomljanović to reach the quarterfinals, at which point she lost to third seed and eventual champion Mirra Andreeva. Joint was seeded 30th at the Australian Open, making her the first Australian seed at the tournament since Ashleigh Barty in 2022. She lost in the first round to Tereza Valentová.

In February, Joint teamed up with Ekaterina Alexandrova at the Abu Dhabi Open to win her first WTA 500 doubles title. In the championship match, which was repeatedly interrupted by rain and complicated by the fact that Alexandrova had played, and lost, in the singles final earlier in the day, they defeated Tereza Mihalíková and Olivia Nicholls in a super tiebreak.

Defending her title at the Eastbourne Open in June, Joint lost to Emiliana Arango in the first round to suffer her 11th consecutive WTA Tour singles defeat and drop out of the world's top 80 as a result. At Wimbledon, she ended her losing run by recording the most high-profile singles victory of her career, defeating 23-time Grand Slam tournament singles champion Serena Williams in the first round. The match marked Williams' first singles appearance since the 2022 US Open. Joint lost in the second round to 29th seed Alexandra Eala, in three sets.

Partnering Chan Hao-ching, she reached the doubles final at the Memphis Classic, losing to Maria Kozyreva and Maia Lumsden in straight sets. The following week, having qualified for the main-draw at the Canadian Open, Joint defeated Yuliia Starodubtseva and 14th seed Sorana Cîrstea, before losing in the third round to Liudmila Samsonova in three sets. Teaming up with Xu Yifan, she won the doubles title at the WTA 500 Monterrey Open, defeating Maria Kozyreva and Maia Lumsden in the final. At the US Open, Joint overcame Liudmila Samsonova to reach the second round, where she lost to ninth seed Elina Svitolina.

Joint is currently sponsored by the Australian sportswear brand Elite Eleven.

Singles

Current through the 2026 Cincinnati Open.

Doubles

Current through the 2026 French Open.

Singles: 2 (2 titles)

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Singles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Singles