Wildcard Joint books clash with former world No.1 Brisbane ...

Teenage wildcard Maya Joint has set a showdown with former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka in her Brisbane International debut after claiming an all-Australian stoush against Maddison Inglis on Sunday.

In only her fourth WTA-level match, the 18-year-old played with the fearlessness of youth when she jumped to 5-0 early and sustained her advantage through a more evenly contested second set for a 6-3 6-4 victory over the 154th-ranked Inglis at Pat Rafter Arena.

18-year-old Maya Joint defeats compatriot Maddison Inglis 6-3 6-4 to kickstart her #BrisbaneTennis campaign.

The young Aussie will take on two-time Brisbane champion Victoria Azarenka in the second round! pic.twitter.com/VAx6TvPT8q

— Brisbane International (@BrisbaneTennis) December 29, 2024

“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.”

Australia’s fastest-rising player over the past year, Joint climbed a staggering 655 places to end inside the top 120 following a season that included two ITF titles, a WTA 125 final and a win over Laura Siegemund to reach the second round at the US Open.

The teenager vowed to learn from a defeat to world No.21 Madison Keys at Flushing Meadows in her next match against two-time former champion Azarenka.

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“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.”

In final-round men’s singles qualifying, German Yannik Hanfmann and 19-year-old American Nishesh Basavareddy ended the hopes of two former top-10 French players to book their main draw berths.

Hanfmann halted the 38-year-old Gasquet’s final Brisbane appearance 7-6(4) 6-3, while Basavareddy posted a 6-4 6-4 result over Lucas Pouille.

A third Frenchman, Benjamin Bonzi, was more fortunate after Bulgarian Adrian Andreev retired injured in just the fifth game, while two Australians, Tristan Schoolkate and Li Tu, fell short against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin and Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka, respectively.  Argentine Federico Agustin Gomez advanced over third seed Dusan Lajovic 6-1 7-6(4).

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