It’s fair to say 2024 is going rather well for Australian teenager Maya Joint.

The 17-year-old reached her first WTA 125k quarter-final in Canberra at the turn of the year before coming within two games of qualifying for a Grand Slam main draw for the first time in Melbourne.

Now, she’s taken another milestone step – winning her first singles title on the ITF World Tennis Tour in some style by clinching the title as a wild card at W75 Burnie.

Joint, the world No. 446 going into the week, beat five players ranked above her and clinched the title with a 1-6 6-1 7-5 triumph over Japan’s Aoi Ito – overcoming a nervy start for a significant win.

“I was a bit frustrated in the beginning, but Aoi played really well,” Joint told Tennis Australia. “I had to figure out a lot of things.”

Joint has now defeated higher-ranked opposition in all of her 11 professional match-wins so far in 2024 – including a season-opening win over former world No. 5 Sara Errani in Canberra.

Bright future ahead ⭐️🙌

17-year-old Aussie Maya Joint takes her maiden ITF singles title at the HCi Burnie International 2 🇦🇺🏆#GoAussies #AustralianProTour pic.twitter.com/qAgauSOTHY

— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) February 11, 2024

The current junior world No. 20 competed in both the pro and junior events at the Australian Open, pushing eventual semi-finalist Dayana Yastremska remarkably close in the final round of qualifying following confidence-boosting wins over Serbian Natalija Stevanovic and Latvian Darja Semenistaja.

“This year’s been really unbelievable,” Joint said. “I’m so grateful to get a wild card into this tournament. “I’m just trying to get my ranking up as much as possible.”

Last week’s efforts have gone some way to helping her achieve just that. Joint, who has signed up to play college tennis at the University of Texas from the Autumn of 2024, rockets 113 places in the rankings this week to a career-high No. 333.

Elsewhere, a reminder of the three certainties in life – death, taxes, and the routine emergence of a female Czech tennis prodigy.

Laura Samson became the sixth Czech girl to win a pro ITF World Tennis Tour title before turning 16 after Brenda Fruhvirtova (9), Marketa Vondrousova, Linda Fruhvirtova, Nicole Vaidisova (2 titles) and Sara Bejlek (1 title).

The 15-year-old junior world No. 4 defeated German Selina Dal 6-1 6-3 to capture her first pro title at W15 Monastir.

Click here to view all the week’s title winners on the ITF World Tennis Tour