TEENAGE talent Maya Joint has got her 2025 WTA Tour off to a great start, picking up an opening round win over fellow Australian Maddison Inglis at the Brisbane International. Played on Pat Rafter Arena, the wildcard was able to overcome the qualifier in straight sets 6-3 6-4 to temporarily move up to fourth overall in the Australian women’s pecking order.

The 18-year-old had a breakout season last year to rise up to as high at 110th in the world. She will get close to that following the win over Inglis, though would need another victory to surpass her career-high ranking. That will proved a tough ask against world number 20 and two-time Brisbane International winner Victoria Azarenka who awaits the American-born Joint in the Round of 32.

Joint won 60.0 per cent of her first serve points and 69.2 per cent of her second serve points compared to Inglis’ 48.5 and 65.4 per cent respectively. She broke four times to two during the match, and was able to win 10 more points in total to advance through to the next round of the tournament.

The Australia’s most notable result came at the US Open last year where she upset German Laura Siegemund in the first round 6-4 7-5, after blasting past American Hayley Baptiste in the last round of qualifying. Turning 19 in April, the Aussie is set to study at college in Texas this year, though still has a great chance of cracking into the Top 100.

Against Inglis, Joint won the first five games of the match and held her nerve despite several challenges, with the Queenslander excited to get a win in front of her friends and family.

“I train here, so it’s super special to be able to play a match in front of this amazing crowd,” Joint said. “It’s really important to start the season off well and I can’t think of a better place to do it than here.

“I’m super excited to just play a lot of firsts – first main draw here, first main draw at the Australian Open.”

The clash against Azarenka looms as a huge one for the teenager, who said she was looking forward to building on her performance against the world’s best, having lost to American Madison Keys 6-4 6-0 in the US Open after defeating Siegemund.

“I’m really excited to play her. Yeah, I’ll think back to my Madison Keys match. That was a great experience. I hope I can play well again,” Joint said.

“There was a lot of things that I saw that I needed to improve in my own game to be competitive with those sorts of players … I’m glad I got a good win under my belt. I’ll take confidence from that. She hasn’t played a match yet this week, so we’ll see how it goes.”