The clock is ticking for emerging Australian talent Maya Joint as she weighs up whether or not to accept more than A$200,000 she won in prize money at the US Open a week ago.
The teenager has filed legal documents in a dispute between collegiate star Reese Brantmeier and National Collegiate Athletic Association as she seeks to retain the prize money, with American officials advising her she has until Sunday in the US to claim the money.
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The 18-year-old, who was raised in Michigan but plays under the Australian flag of her father Michael Joint, has risen rapidly through the ranks over the past year and is on the cusp of breaking into the top 100.
Joyce, who started the season ranked 684 and now sits at 110 on a live estimate, has won more than A$400,000 in a strong breakthrough season which included an appearance on Arthur Ashe Stadium last week against top American Madison Keys.
But current NCAA rules, which are the subject of multiple legal challenges from student athletes including Brantmeier, stipulate that athletes can receive US$10,000 in prize money and any further winnings beyond can only be used to pay expenses.
Joint, who has agreed to join the Texas Longhorns collegiate team and is playing in a tournament in Guadalajara this week, said in the legal filing she visited the US Open prize money office at Flushing Meadows and informed the USTA of the legal motion.
She said she was told by the tournament that she must either accept or decline the prize money offer by the end of the tournament on Sunday. Joint’s attorney Jason Miller and the USTA have subsequently exchanged legal correspondence.
In the filing to the United States District Court in the middle district of North Carolina, Joint states that unless the NCAA rules are set aside, she “will be forced to either forfeit my NCAA eligibility and college scholarship or forfeit a substantial portion” of prize money.
“If I am forced to forfeit these funds, I am not aware of any means by which I will be able to recover payment of these funds from the USTA,” she said in the filing.
Joint, who said she was aware of at least nine other players at the US Open who are in a similar position, said last week she was hopeful the action in place would result in a fair outcome.
“It is very complicated. My mum looks at it, and then the Texas Compliance Office helps me with that. And one of my friends, Reese Brantmeier, she has been through all of that, so she helps me,” she said.
Brantmeier, a top player in North Carolina, is suing the NCAA over the rules that restrict college athletes from pocketing prize money.
“While Brantmeier’s Prize Money pales in comparison to the pay-for-play amounts received by many student-athletes in profit generating sports, these amounts are even more critical to athletes in non-revenue, Individual Sports where professional opportunities to earn compensation after college may be fleeting and where the highest and most-prestigious levels of competition are open to student-athletes,” the lawsuit states.
Fiona Crawley, who was the top-ranked collegiate player in 2023, forfeited more than $120,000 a year ago to ensure she finished her degree and said it was difficult to stomach.
“I would never take the money and never risk my eligibility, but I worked my butt of this week and it seems unreal that there are football and basketball players making millions in NIL deals and I can’t take that money that I worked so hard for,” she said.
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