Maya Joint has vowed to return to the Australian Open stronger, after the top-ranked local in the women’s singles draw crashed out in the first round on Tuesday with a straight sets defeat to Czech teenager Tereza Valentová.
Valentová made the most of an inconsistent display from the 30th seed, winning 6-4, 6-4 in 92 minutes.
Joint, at 19 and only one year older than her opponent, struggled with unforced errors and with her serve, leaving a near-full John Cain Arena shocked and disappointed in the first match of the day.
“I’ll learn a lot from this match, [and] come back stronger next year,” Joint said. “I had a few more double faults than usual, and I think I had quite a few unforced errors today. Yeah, just a tough, tough match.”
The Australian was the first woman seeded at Melbourne Park since Ash Barty in 2022, but was broken five times by her dangerous opponent, who enjoyed a breakout year on the WTA Tour last year.
Joint was visibly frustrated in the second set following a succession of errors, and appeared to struggle with the ball floating long as conditions quickened with the rising temperature.
During a toilet break taken by Valentová when she was up 3-2 in the second set, Joint and coach Chris Mahony shared a long, animated exchange during which Joint shrugged her shoulders with apparent exasperation.
“We were talking most about second serve, I was struggling a bit with that, just to commit to it, keep brushing up over it,” she said.
The 54th-ranked Valentová was also inconsistent with her serve, and was broken three times herself, but edged a match in which she had both more winners and unforced errors than Joint.
The fortunes of another local up-and-comer, Taylah Preston, were better however. The wildcard defeated China’s Zhang Shuai 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 on Kia Arena.
Preston’s victory was her first at a grand slam, and avenged her loss against Zhang in the qualifiers for the Brisbane International two weeks ago.
“Sometimes I’m calm, sometimes I’m not, hopefully I’m more calm that not,” the Australian said.
“Especially at the end of the third there I started to get a little bit nervous, but I just tried to not think about it, and just think about playing the point, and maybe I did it OK.”
