THE LID is officially off for Australia’s newest teenage star with Maya Joint dismantling Croatian Top 20 player Donna Vekic in Merida today. The WTA Tour 500 event taking place in Mexico saw the 18-year-old completely outplay Vekic who has been suffering some repercussions from a recent knee injury to get up 6-1 6-2 in just 80 minutes.

The full match time flattered Vekic who managed just one game in 24 minutes through the first set with the Aussie racing to an early 5-0 lead before the Croatian finally held to get on the board. She was made to work for it more in the second set though still notched up two more breaks to skirt out to a 5-1 lead, before serving out the match in the eighth game of the set.

Vekic held on in the second set to force Joint to take 56 minutes to win it, though the Australian did hit 13 more winners (27-14) and 14 less unforced errors (23-37). She won 73 per cent of her first serve points and 55 per cent of her second serve points, while Vekic struggled with just 30 per cent success off the latter.

Joint also converted four breaks of serve from 15 chances as she continually put pressure on the Vekic second serve, and only faced two break point opportunities herself, swatting them away well to hold in each of her eight games. Her serve has been an issue for the teenager, but she stood strong and fell just short of a 300 serve rating (295), while boasting a ridiculous return rating of 189.

Of her winners, the Aussie smacked 15 off her forehand side and 10 off her backhand, while Vekic was heavily reliant on the former (nine of 14). The victory meant Joint moved up to 83rd in the world, while Vekic slid down two spots to 22nd.

Joint has won seven of her past eight matches between main draw and qualification at all levels, and has already made a WTA Tour 250 event semi-finals this year, with the 18-year-old through to the quarter finals in Mexico.

Next up for the Australian qualifier is another tough opponent in Armenian Elina Avanesyan, with the former Russian taking care of Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro comfortably, 6-1 6-4. In the other results, second seed Paula Badosa obliterated Romanian Jaqueline Cristian only dropping two games, while another Australian qualifier in Daria Saville booked her spot in the quarter finals with a second straight win over a higher ranked Ukrainian, this time Anhelina Kalinina, 4-6 6-2 6-2.

Over in Austin two more Aussies were in action with varying successes. Ajla Tomljanovic ran away with the match against Brit Jodie Burrage 4-6 6-3 6-0, while top ranked Aussie Kimberly Birrell went down to Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-3 4-6 6-4 and if Joint wins her next match, will surrender that title. Meanwhile local seeds Jessica Pegula and McCartney Kessler both advanced through to the quarter finals, as did Russian Anna Blinkova.