Australia’s No. 1 tennis player, Maya Joint, has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of women’s professional tennis, and on Friday, she progressed to the semi-finals of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open.
But, despite becoming one of the best in the world while still a teenager, Joint admitted she does not know how she got there.
“It’s been crazy. I don’t think anything’s really changed that much in my day-to-day life, though,” the 19-year-old said.
“I don’t really know what it was that made me rise so much. I think just being able to train with Tennis Australia, and being in the professional environment day in and day out.”
At the beginning of the 2024 season, Joint was 684 in the world and was thrust into the spotlight when she made the main draw of that year’s US Open. But her true breakout has come this year, as Joint has won two WTA 250 titles and made the first round of all of this season’s grand slams.
“I feel like I don’t really think too much about rankings,” she said. “So I don’t really know how I got here, so I’m just trying to hold on to it as long as I can and just keep trying to keep playing. Yeah, hopefully I can keep going.”
The world No. 32 said she has not had the chance to go home since becoming the No. 1 Aussie Woman in October and had not thought about what the reaction to her returning to her native country would be.
“I don’t think I’m recognisable, so I don’t think people are gonna, like, stop me on the street or anything,” she said. “But I think maybe when I’m playing at the courts in Brisbane, maybe I’ll get more people watching, I’m not sure, but yeah, I think it’ll be relatively normal.”
Joint knocked out Japanese qualifier Himeno Sakatsume on Victoria Park Center Court 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in a match that lasted one hour and 52 minutes.
The quarter-final was the first time Sakatsume had dropped more than three games in a single set. Before that, over four matches, including two in qualifying, she had only lost a total of 12 games.
Joint has played three matches so far in Hong Kong, and two of them have gone to three sets.
“I’ve played a lot of tight matches this year and been able to win a couple of those,” Joint said. “So I just try and take experience and try and take confidence from those wins, and yeah, try and stay composed and calm in the tough moments.
“She’s [Sakatsume] been playing great. So I knew that this match was going to be very tough. But I try and go into each match just expecting them to play the best that they can, and that I’m going to have to bring my top game as well.”
Earlier in the day, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Belinda Bencic, pulled out with a thigh injury, allowing Spain’s Cristina Bucsa to progress to Saturday’s semi-final.
“I never played Belinda before, so it would have been a good opportunity and a nice chance to be able to play her, but I wish her all the best to get healthy again,” Joint said.
The tournament saw another player withdraw because of injury on Friday, as Anna Kalinskaya retired during the second set of her tie against Victoria Mboko, who was leading 6-1, 3-1.
The last quarter-final match saw 2023 champion Leylah Fernandez beat Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6 4, 6-4.
In the doubles, Team Hong Kong’s journey in the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open came to an end, as Eudice Chong and Cody Wong lost 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to China’s Jiang Xinyu and Wang Yafan.
The last match of the day will see Wang and Jiang face Chinese Taipei’s Liang En-shuo and China’s Shuo Feng in the second semi-final match.