She earned an Australian Open wildcard with an impressive three-tournament run in November where she won a title and reached a final and semi-final.
That form rolled on with Jonesโ straight-sets dispatching of world No.43 Tatjana Maria in Brisbane on Monday night, which was her second career top-50 scalp, on top of advancing to final-round qualifying at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
She then blasted her way to a 3-0 lead over 17th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova on Wednesday โ almost 12 months after facing Elena Rybakina in her Australian Open debut โ before going down 6-4, 6-1.
Jones has a world-class backhand.Credit: Getty Images
Jones wants to be where Samsonova is, but received a reminder of where she needs to improve.
The Australian teenager, who already boasts a world-class backhand, matched Samsonova from the baseline for parts of the clash, but the taller and physically stronger Russian routinely out-served her by 20km/h or more.
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โI feel like my serve definitely has gotten a bit better as Iโm playing womenโs, just because it has to,โ Jones said.
โItโs fine in juniors, but when you move out of juniors, youโve got to take the next step into womenโs. I think playing a top-20 [opponent] is another step from playing a top 50 โฆ when you take another step up, things just have to get a little bit better.โ
That is where Jonesโ coach, Carlos Cuadrado, comes in.
Jones is an outstanding athlete โ her mother, Loretta Harrop, won a world title and Olympic silver in triathlon, so her genetics are strong โ but is closer in height to Barty than Aryna Sabalenka or Rybakina, so the plan is to become as accurate a server as possible and gradually add power as she matures.
Cuadrado knows what it is like to be a prodigy, given he won the Roland-Garros boysโ title in 2001, including defeating former world No.8 Janko Tipsarevic along the way, before injuries cruelled his career.
He has since worked with top-20 stars Svetlana Kuznetsova, Daniela Hantuchova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, but rates Jones as the best competitor he has coached.
Maya Joint in action at the United Cup.Credit: Getty Images
โI never had a player who competes as well as her, and can lift her level in the most important moments of the match,โ Cuadrado said.
โI think thatโs impossible to teach, but she has mastered that and is fearless. Our focus is on development, and I donโt want to put pressure on her, but our goal is to try to reach top 100 this year, which I believe is realistic. I would not be surprised if she does better than that, so weโll see.โ
Jones wants that to happen quickly, but is trying to be patient.
Fellow teenagers such as Mirra Andreeva, Victoria Mboko, Joint and Iva Jovic are already inside the top 40, while Tereza Valentova and Sara Bejlek have double-digit rankings, too. But they are all older than Jones, even if by mere months.
Jones won Tennis Australiaโs female junior athlete of the year award in 2025.Credit: Getty Images
Jones hit with 18-year-old Andreeva this week, and the world No.9 believes the aggressive Gold Coaster is โvery talentedโ and destined to be a great player.
โIโve always wanted to do stuff young,โ Jones said.
โI played junior tournaments with Mirra, and you look at Maya, too, so obviously, itโs possible [to succeed at an early age], especially in womenโs [tennis] โ and I think everyone knows that. But youโve got to have the belief to do it.โ
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