Serena Williams had already won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including two Wimbledon crowns, when Maya Joint was born in April 2006.
But now the 20-year-old Australian has ended the fairytale return of the 44-year-old Williams at the All England Club with a stunning 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 victory in the first round.
It was Williams’s first match at Wimbledon in four years, having won 23 major titles. She did not speak to the media after losing in the opening round at Wimbledon for only the third time in 21 matches.
So, who is Maya Joint, the unexpected conqueror of a living legend?
Like Serena, Maya was born in the US
Maya Joint admitted to feeling the ‘aura’ of Serena Williams from across the net. (Getty Images: John Walton/PA Images)
While Australia is celebrating Maya’s victory, American sports fans can savour it as well.
Maya was born in Grosse Point, Michigan, and only started representing Australia three years ago.
Her Australian father Michael Joint is a former professional squash player who left Melbourne at the age of 19 to pursue a sports career at Wayne State University in the late 1990s.
Melbourne-born Michael Joint was a professional squash player. (Facebook)
He met Maya’s German mother, Katja, in Europe before the couple settled in Detroit two years before their daughter was born.
Maya competed on the ITF junior circuit as an American before switching allegiances in mid-2023 at the age of 17.
The family relocated to Brisbane as Maya began training at Tennis Australia’s National Academy with other top talents, including former Australian number one Ajla Tomljanović, who was born in Croatia.
Rapid improvement since 2024
Maya Joint won her second WTA Tour title at Eastbourne in June 2025. (Reuters: Paul Childs)
Over the past two years, Maya has gone from a little-known player in women’s tennis to one of its fast-rising stars.
She played her first match in the main draw of a Grand Slam singles event at the US Open in August 2024, defeating Laura Siegemund before losing to 14th seed Madison Keys in the second round.
By April 2025, she was in Australia’s team in the Billie Jean Cup.
The next month, Maya claimed her first WTA Tour title, defeating Jaqueline Cristian in straight sets in the final of the 2025 Morocco Open, before winning the doubles title as well, as her singles ranking pushed towards the top-50.
And having conquered the clay courts of north Africa, she proved her versatility the following month by grabbing her second WTA Tour title on the grass of southern England.
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At the Eastbourne Open, Maya saved four match points before beating Alexandra Eala, of the Philippines, in three sets in the final, as she won a marathon tie-break by 12 points to 10.
In 2025, she earned $US545,612 ($790,000) in prize money and reached a career-high ranking of number 32.
But until her upset win over Williams, Maya’s 2026 season had been forgettable.
She began with an opening-week illness at the United Cup, followed by a severe back injury at Indian Wells in California.
That was the beginning of an 11-match losing streak that stretched over nearly five months.
But somehow she got it all together to spoil the comeback of a tennis icon.
What’s she like off the court?
Maya is nicknamed the Ginger Ninja due to her bright red hair colour, martial arts background and explosive speed.
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She is a brown belt in karate, having achieved the rank after a five-day testing process in 2025.
Away from tennis, she is studying criminal justice as a remote student at Indiana University East, as part of an educational partnership with the WTA.
Maya loves true-crime murder TV shows and has aspirations to work in criminology after her professional tennis career.
And true to her Australian roots, she is known for her love of Vegemite on toast.
