15 February 2012 | Tennis Victoria

Eight years of hard work have paid off for 12 year-old Jackson Ross over the summer, winning one and finishing runner-up in two boys’ 12/u tournaments on his favourite surface, grass.

He finished runner-up in the 2011 Warrnambool Sungold Junior Grasscourt Open in late December and followed it up by winning the Goulburn Valley Junior Championships 2012 in Shepparton and runner-up again at the 2012 Australia Post Margaret Court Cup in Albury in January. Wimbledon is now in his sights.

“[I want] to be world No.1 and win a Grand Slam,” says Ross, who declares Novak Djokovic to be his favourite player, because “he fights for everything he does”.

Currently ranked No.3 in Victoria and No.8 in Australia for his age group, Jackson has steadily climbed more than 1200 places on the Australian Rankings in the last 12 months.

Jackson is a member of Tennis Victoria’s new Future Stars Program and participated in the Davis Cup Development Camp in Geelong last week for boys aged 12/u during the Davis Cup.

“It was pretty hard, but good,” said Ross.

Among the many things he will take away from the camp, there was one that stood out for Jackson.

“[I learnt] to be really intense the whole time and compete for the whole duration of the day or match.”

Jackson currently trains for 8-10 hours a week and plays competitions and tournaments on the weekend. He describes his game style as a serve and volleyer.

He loves having fun, competing for the match and rates being nominated as the No.1 player for the Victorian Bruce Cup team in 2011 as his on-court highlight to date.