DEDICATED teenage athlete Linsey Jacks is aiming for a shot at the tennis big time.

The 18-year-old Haxby ace has been playing full-time since finishing her 'A'-levels last summer thanks to the backing of her parents Tony and Chris, and is hoping to make a big enough mark on the sport to go right to the top as a full-time professional.

The right-handed serve and volley exponent lists Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick as her favourite international stars but also watches Andre Agassi "and anyone really" to glean as much as possible to add to her own game.

And, like any rising British tennis star, a place at Wimbledon alongside such greats is one target she would love to smash - and this year will be her first attempt at making the grade.

She said: "I have never been able to try to qualify before because of exams and that sort of thing, but I will be going for it this year."

Jacks' ambitious bid for stardom is not, by any strength of the imagination, an easy ride. Training consists of three-and-a-half hours of drills and game play from Monday to Thursday in Bolton under coach Jim Edgar, followed by an hour-and-a-half of fitness training.

On Fridays, Jacks travels in the opposite direction to Hull for a session with her coach of nine years, Richard Plews, before half an hour working on her dominant serve back in York.

But despite the long hours and the travelling, Jacks knows she is living a dream.

"I love it," she said. "It's so nice to play and not have anything to worry about apart from playing. Before, I was always worried about what homework I needed to do or what I had to revise."

The benefits of a full-time tennis focus have already started to pay off with big improvements in Jacks' game, in terms of both physical fitness and the demanding tactical facet of the game.

She has just returned from her first major foreign tour in Portugal where she won two matches from five in three tournaments. Qualifying for the 32-strong main draw in each would have meant winning four qualifying rounds.

"My aim was to get through two rounds," she said. "From what people had told me, I thought the standard would be quite low but it was actually a strong tournament and it completely depended on the draw and if you were lucky or not - one of my friends drew the number two seed.

"It was a good experience. The whole standard rises just because there are so many different players and different styles that you have to get to grips with."

Knowing that a good run could have resulted in a golden ticket to those first crucial ranking points adds to the disappointment, but it is all part of the learning curve which will hopefully steer her into the world of the professional tour.

She said: "My main ambition is to play tennis, obviously, and I have never thought of what I would do outside of that. I would like to make a career in tennis but it is very tough.

"It's very difficult to get into tournaments because until you can get a world ranking it's very hard to get in - and the only way you can get a world ranking is to get into the tournaments and do well."

So what does the near future hold? British tour events at Bolton and Swansea are a possibility as are competitions in European hot-spots Greece and Croatia. She is also set to turn out for Halifax Queens in the national league.

But the one big target for the year is simple.

"To get a world ranking," says Jacks. "I think it's an obtainable target. It depends on the size of the draw but you have to qualify and win a match in some, others you have got to win a round in qualifying.

"But I'm definitely getting there. And once I'm in, my target will then be to stay there and get higher. I want to get as high as I can."

Updated: 10:41 Saturday, February 21, 2004