WTA250 Rabat: Maya Joint vs Jaqueline Cristian final analysis
Top-class consistency and composure from the promising teenager to secure first Tour title
Maya Joint (WTA #78) consolidated her status as highest ranked teenager outside phenom Mirra Andreeva with a maiden WTA Tour title in Rabat without losing a set.
The recently-turned 19-year old Australian concluded her convincing breakthrough week with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Jaqueline Cristian (WTA #74) in the final of the Grand Prix Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem.
Still on her second full year among the pros* and first as a regular on the main Tour, Joint impresses with a calm and composed demeanour that translates into great on-court consistency from both wings. Considered one of the most promising young players, she combines those traits with sharp footwork and a strong court coverage, to go along with the fearless attitude and aggressive baseline exhibited while she steadily rose through the different ITF Tour/WTA 125 levels.
Early and continued success that led Joint to change her initial plan of playing college tennis for the University of Texas. It certainly looks like the teenager has made the right decision as she is already at the doorstep of the world’s top-50, following a jump to #53 with her victory in Morocco.
* Joint only turned pro officially at the start of this year, delaying it in the past to maintain NCAA elegibility
Match analysis
Breakdown of points won by rally length showed Joint’s win over Cristian in the Rabat final was two-pronged. The teenager won:
63% of the short rallies — 38 of 60, for a 16-point advantage
69% of the long rallies — 11 of 16, for a 6-point advantage
A deeper look revealed a link between short rallies won and each player’s performance on their second shots, with a slightly bigger relevance to what happened during Cristian’s serve points.
Behind her serve, Cristian accumulated 8 “serve+1” errors with just 2 winners and saw Joint rip 5 “return+1” winners while only making 3 errors. Contrasting performances that led to an 8-point difference favouring Joint.
Cristian “serve+1”
2 winners / 8 errors = -6
Joint “return+1”
5 winners / 3 errors = +2
→ Here are 3 of 5 forehand “return+1” winners struck by Joint during the Rabat final
📺 source: WTA Tv
On Joint’s serve, “+1” performances didn’t reach the same level of separation but still resulted in a 4-point advantage for the Australian.
With offense limited to a single winner for each player, it all came down to error-control. Joint did well to keep “serve+1” mistakes down to 3 while Cristian finished with 7 “return+1” errors.
Joint “serve+1”
1 winner / 3 errors = -2
Cristian “return+1”
1 winner / 7 errors = -6
Long rallies were more frequent in the first set and contributed to its outcome.
Despite the tricky windy conditions, Joint stayed solid and took 7 of 10 prolonged exchanges that played out in the opener. With purposeful yet patient build-up, she won a few of those long exchanges at key moments to grab a one-set lead.
One of the most impressive stats of the first set was Joint making a single backhand unforced error during 39 rallies. This consistency contrasted with Cristian’s struggles to land sufficient good shots in succession while trying to impose her attacking baseline game.
Joint’s backhand dropped a bit in quality during the second set, even ending the match a worse differential from that side: -6 against Cristian’s -2.
Backhand Performances (returns and groundstrokes)
Joint: 1 winner / 7 unforced errors = -6
Cristian 7 winners / 9 unforced errors = -2
But that turned out to be of little significance because the Australian was head-and-shoulders above Cristian in terms of forehand performance.
Joint hit 11 forehand winners with 8 unforced errors for a +3 differential whereas Cristian could only respond with 6 winners and a costly 19 unforced errors, resulting in a -13 differential.
Forehand Performances (returns and groundstrokes)
Joint: 11 winners / 8 unforced errors = +3
Cristian: 6 winners / 19 unforced errors = -13
So the eventual champion accrued a big 16-point advantage (+3 to -13) from forehand returns and groundstrokes.
Overall, Joint finished with 18 winners, 3 more than Cristian, while committing just half of her opponent’s unfoced errors (17 to 34).
With tremendous poise,maturity and solidity in her Tour final debut, she became a well-deserved champion.
Maya Joint (WTA #78) vs Jaqueline Cristian (WTA #74)
2025 Rabat final - Match Data
Set by Set Stats
Strategy Stats
Strokes Breakdown
Winners and Errors (returns & rally shots)
Direction of winning shots and unforced errors (only groundstrokes)
Serve and Return
1st Serves
2nd Serves
Return & rallying performance
Rally length
Points won breakdown
This final section gives a last, broader look at the match by presenting how each player won points. Points are listed according to their frequency (highest to lowest) and are named in relation to the last touch on the ball. For simplicity, groundstrokes hit from the 5th shot onwards are grouped together.
Breakdown by side (FHs or BHs)
Breakdown by error type (UFEs or FEs)
To find out more about the stats published here, please visit the following post.
While we follow the same criteria used on all major tennis events, our stats are collected through our own video analysis and are not official WTA or ITF stats.
Thanks for reading!
— Tennis Inside Numbers