After a stellar 12 months, Maya Joint is ready to take centre stage at Australian Open 2026.
Contesting just her sixth Grand Slam main draw, Australia’s top ranked woman is seeded for the first time in her young career, a position she may not have dared to dream of when carrying the No.105 ranking into her debut at last year’s AO.
“Being seeded is definitely a little bit of a different feeling, but yeah, it's exciting,” she said on Saturday, acknowledging the heightened pressure and expectations that come with being the No.1 Aussie woman.
The 30th seed is aware of the incredible players who held that spot and established Australia’s great tennis legacy, despite many of their major wins occurring in the decades before she was born.
“Ash Barty, Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Sam Stosur, Nicole Pratt, there are so many more,” said the 19-year-old. “So many amazing women that have come before all of us Aussies.”
Joint is friendly with countrywomen including Kimberly Birrell, Ajla Tomljanovic, Ellen Perez, Storm Hunter and Maddison Inglis. She has twice hit with Barty, a three-time Grand Slam champion, and said she knows Pratt and Stosur, the last Australian to clinch a US Open women’s singles title, well.
“I try and just learn as much as I can from them,” she said.
While most of her rivals in the WTA Tour’s top 50 aren’t shy about setting bold goals, Joint is taking a more measured approach. In 2025, she surpassed her ambitions by winning two WTA 250-level titles - on clay in Rabat, and on grass in Eastbourne - and advancing to the second round of a major for the first time at the US Open.
“This year I'd like to win a [WTA] 500 event, get to the fourth round of a Masters, third round of a slam,” said the soft-spoken teenager who has dubbed herself the "Ginger Ninja".
Joint began the year competing for Australia at her first United Cup where she lost to Grand Slam champions Iga Swiatek and Barbora Krejcikova but learned invaluable lessons from Alex de Minaur, Storm Hunter and the rest of the team.
In Adelaide, the right-hander extended her head-to-head over AO 2020 champion Sofia Kenin to 3-0 to clinch her first win of the year, bolstering her conviction ahead of the AO, where she’s one of eight teenagers in the women’s singles draw.
“I definitely feel some extra pressure,” admitted the Melbourne resident. “But like Billie Jean [King] said, pressure is a privilege.”
After firing 67 aces and making 60.5 per cent of first serves last season, the teen is hungry to improve. “I’ve been working a lot on my serve placement and just accuracy,” she revealed in Adelaide.
After practising on Saturday on Margaret Court Arena, Joint said she plans to watch some match footage featuring Czech 18-year-old Tereza Valentova before their first-round encounter.
“I'm really excited to get playing on Tuesday,” she said. “It's my home tournament, I’ve got a lot of friends and family there that are going to come out and support.”