Having been pushed to the brink and forced to dig into her bag of tricks, Victoria Azarenka believed she had witnessed the makings of Australia’s next grand slam star in teenage phenom Maya Joint.
The two-time Australian Open champion demonstrated to the 18-year-old just how far she had to go to realise her dreams of global domination, as the former world No.1 triumphed 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the Brisbane International.
Maya Joint, 18, put up a brilliant fight against former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka at the Brisbane International. Credit: Getty Images
But much like her shock second round berth at the US Open where she was eventually conquered by world No.20 Madison Keys, Joint showed enough on Pat Rafter Arena to suggest she had the makings of a long-term contender.
There were times the teenager threatened Azarenka with her brutal back court play – winning two breaks of serve before going on to finally take the opening set after seven failed attempts.
The highlights: a clutch second serve ace down the centre to save a break point, while a pair of clinical cross court strokes garnered her own breaks. This girl is powerful, and the tennis world is now on notice as a result.
Ultimately, Azarenka – who had not played a match since September after an injury-plagued year – had too much class, experience and ferocity for Joint to overcome, while some execution errors and a pair of missed break point opportunities at 2-2 in the second set also proved costly.
But the 35-year-old believed Joint was a slumbering future force ready to be awoken, as she braced for a maiden appearance in the Australian Open main draw.
And the Belarus ace, who made her own grand slam debut as a 16-year-old in 2006 before reaching the US Open third round later that year, delivered some sharp advice to the rising star: embrace the heartaches.
“When I think about it, I think it took me a while [to get used to the elite environment]; when you look at the progression of my ranking it was quite quick, but it was a big difference for me,” Azarenka told this masthead.
“I was pretty much an undefeated player in juniors, I had so many titles, and I was winning pretty much every tournament I played. Then … there were a lot of heartbreaks for me, but it was also where I knew I needed to step up and continue to improve to get to the next level.
“There were definitely a lot of heartbreaks for sure. You have to build resilience, you have to build experience.
“For me, the biggest difference in juniors was if I start to lead the set I was pretty much guaranteed to win that set. Then on the professional tour you can have match points and still lose, so I think that was a big lesson for me.
“If she continues to play like this she’s got a pretty good future ahead of her. She’s very aggressive, she moved really well, and she served well under pressure as well, so there are a lot of great things that she produced.”
While Joint has fallen, an Australian hope still remains in Brisbane, after Kim Birrell shocked second seed Emily Navarro 7-5, 7-5.
The Queenslander, determined to regain her place among the world’s top 100, lost in straight sets to the world No.8 when they last faced, and she believed that experience paved the way for her brutal response.
It was the calibre of win Birrell admits she feared she would never be able to replicate, after spending more than two years on the sidelines after repeated elbow surgeries threatened her career.
But that time away instead appears to have given the 26-year-old a new lease on life, as she prepares to face world No.35 Anastasia Potapova on Thursday.
“It gave me, I guess, the chance to reflect and realise that I did really want to keep playing, and then I didn’t expect to be out for so long; that was the beginning of my injury, and then I had almost two more years of rehab ahead of me at that time,” Birrell said.
“There were definitely periods where I didn’t know if I was going to get back on court, let alone at the level I played today, so I’m really glad I persevered.
“I will definitely take a lot of confidence from today just knowing I can do it, and you always believe in yourself but to actually get wins on the board definitely helps.”
