UK family struggles mean Taiwan’s Garland ‘not over’ losing AU$1 million to Aussie amateur

With her magnetic personality, easy smile and nerveless shot-making, Joanna Garland earned a horde of new admirers on her run to the final of this month’s novelty One Point Slam in Australia. The women’s world No 117, who was born in England to Taiwanese parents, Garland is “incredibly grateful” she had the opportunity to compete in the sudden-death competition, ahead of the Australian Open. However, her victims included Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios, and the 24-year-old is “sure many good things will come from this”. “But it’s still annoying, right?” Garland said, referring to her defeat by Australian amateur Jordan Smith in the winner-takes-all AU$1 million (US$699,000) final on Rod Laver Arena. “I’ve definitely felt sad since,” Garland told the South China Morning Post. “Anyone would be upset about being that close to that amount of money … with time, I’ll probably move on. “My family and my coach are telling me, ‘You can’t be down about this, it’s silly. It makes no sense … just be happy about what happened.’” Deliberating over how she would have spent the jackpot, Garland, who has WTA Tour career earnings of US$33,650, said: “Either on my tennis, or … things aren’t too stable at home financially.” Garland’s mother is from Taiwan. Her maternal grandfather was originally from the north of mainland China. “He fled with the [former ruling party] Kuomintang when the [1949] revolution came … from what my mum tells me he was a descendant of the last emperor,” Garland said. When she was 10, her parents emptied their bank accounts to move from England to Taiwan. “We lived with my aunt, six of us in her one-bedroom flat in Kaohsiung,” Garland said. When her family returned to the UK after five years, Garland stayed in her adopted home because “my dad and I felt the tennis system was better than the UK’s for character development”. Her parents still live with her grandparents in Stevenage, and Garland said her mother works “12-hour shifts in a care home every day of the week. My youngest brother’s not going to university because of the costs”. “But my mum’s saying not winning the money was a blessing in disguise,” Garland added. “[She thinks] I would have put pressure on myself about what to do with it, or what if I had all this funding towards my tennis and it didn’t make much difference? “Maybe she’s just saying that to make me feel better.” Garland attained a junior world ranking of No 14. At 16, she beat Zheng Qinwen on the way to the French Open girls’ singles quarter-finals. “I went a little bit off the rails in my late teens … not training when I should have been, mixing with the wrong people,” she said. “Friends who are ‘cool’, but actually not that cool. “That led to me maybe not breaking through as a pro as soon as some of my peers. “It was difficult being away from my mum and dad, especially my mum, but I have a really strong relationship with my parents as a result of not being with them when I was younger. I try to spend as much time at home as I can.” Garland “lost a lot of sleep” over whether she should switch to represent Great Britain before committing her competitive allegiance to Chinese Taipei. “Financial backing was the main factor, but another massive reason was the emotional support I get over there compared to back in Britain,” she said. “Without the federation’s support I wouldn’t be where I am now. I felt they really believed I could be playing in slams and reach the top 100 … I didn’t get that feeling in Britain.” After a prolonged injury lay-off in 2024, Garland’s ranking tumbled to No 551. “I was very down at times, there were so many days when I wasn’t motivated,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I can hang around slam qualifiers level and, if not make a living, get by’.” Moving to the Netherlands to reunite with former coach Tim de Rooij, who “believed in me, told me I was top-100 material and set me on the right path”, prompted a change in fortunes. Between October and December 2024, she won 29 straight matches and five successive tournaments. Last year, Garland reached a grand slam main draw for the first time, advancing through qualifying to the second round of the French Open. Afterwards, she said her previous two years had been blighted by “wrong decisions”. “Most of them were injury related,” Garland said. “At times, I shouldn’t have been playing, but I tried to force it because of pressure I thought was external … really it was internal. “Other times, I could have pushed my body more. I made wrong choices about where to train, and in who I was listening to.” It is still a regret for Garland that her ranking nosedive cost her the chance to partner Hsieh Su-wei in the 2024 Olympic doubles. “It left me with a lot of self-doubt and questions … what if?” Garland said. Consequently, reaching the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 is a primary goal. “I remember watching the opening ceremony of London 2012 and seeing the Chinese Taipei team had significantly fewer athletes than the British team; I told my mum, ‘I want to play for Chinese Taipei’,” said Garland, who plans to compete in this year’s Asian Games. “The Olympics receive more focus there than the regular tour … it’s not something most tennis players would focus on, but it’s big for me.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joanna Garland 葛藍喬安娜 (@jojogarland) Seeing a sports psychologist for the past 2½ years has allowed Garland to “turn my mental strength into one of my attributes”. “I was quite a moody teenager, so it’s nice to have people telling me I have a great mentality and attitude on court,” she said. “When I was younger, it was, ‘she’s so angry on court, she gets mad, she swears, she throws her racquet, she’s such a rude kid’. “I don’t think I was rude, it was just seen as cool to throw your racquet and be miserable.” Given her “Chinese roots”, Garland is keen to experience the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open, which she has heard “is one of the best tournaments on tour”. Hunting ranking points last year, she opted instead to play a “weaker event” in Chennai where, suffering from heat-induced illness, she lost her first WTA Tour semi-final from 5-0 up in the final set. “It was tricky to process … but I’d wanted to go home before the tournament even started and I was having doubts about my playing ability,” Garland said. “I still gave it everything. My sports psychologist calls it the ‘100-per-cent mentality’: if I’m feeling three out of 10, I still show up and maximise that three out of 10.” Before her One Point Slam exploits, Garland started 2026 by claiming her first WTA title in Canberra. “If we look where I was a few years ago, and where I’ve come from as a kid, you could say I’ve overachieved already,” she said. “I’m not too far off the top 100, but my ranking only improved by 10 places after Canberra, the gap [to players above] is bigger the higher you go. If my career ranking ends up between 90 and 100, you could say I’ve made it as a pro, but I believe, and my coach certainly does, that would be a failure.” A first-round draw against world No 63 Solana Sierra in this week’s Philippine Women’s Open underlined the difficulty of achieving repeat success. Speaking two days before that match, Garland said focusing had been “quite challenging...but I’m trying to get back to normal”. She lost in two tight sets, but had promised to “keep a positive mindset and focus on the stuff that’s been going well … my level’s the best it’s ever been”. Garland was also encouraged by her calmness under the One Point spotlight. “I wasn’t even nervous before the final … I don’t want to sound petty, but his ball clipped the back of the service line and bounced funny, which was why I missed the shot,” Garland said, allowing herself a rueful smile. “Technically, I still have the opportunity to earn that money in the future. I am motivated to one day be recognised for my own tennis, not the One Point Slam. “I just love playing tennis, I’d be lost without it. I enjoy the excitement it brings every week, and the feeling you can get better every day. “I’m happy I went pro instead of going to an American college. A lot of people my age are struggling to find something they want to specialise in or that they enjoy. I appreciate how lucky I am to do something I love for my job.”

UK family struggles mean Taiwan’s Garland ‘not over’ losing AU$1 million to Aussie amateur

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Taiwan’s Joanna Garland beat Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios in One Point Slam event, only to lose AU$1 million to amateur Jordan Smith

Taiwan’s Joanna Garland beat Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios in One Point Slam event, only to lose AU$1 million to amateur Jordan Smith