JAMAICAN professional tennis player Dustin Brown is eyeing a main draw at Wimbledon this year after a meteoric 2009 season saw him blast through the ATP rankings by 355 places.

Brown, a German-born 25-year-old of Jamaican parentage who resides in Montego Bay, is ranked 144th in singles and 206th in doubles after the latest rankings were released on December 28, 2009.

That’s the highest achievement for Brown and it has generated a lot of attention towards the Jamaican top seed whose career earnings now stands over US$100,000.

Having started the year at 499th (singles) in the world, his massive leap up the rankings is certainly one of the biggest movements, if not the biggest jump, in the rankings for 2009 by any player.

In 2009 Brown played in eight ATP singles finals, winning two, while triumphing in five of nine doubles finals.

“It’s been a really good year, 2009,” Brown said in a Sunday Observer exclusive from India, where he’s playing in the Aircel Chennai Open.

“I quickly realised that I could also stay with the guys on the Challenger level, so later I played finals at the challenger in Karlsruhe (in Germany), beating a string of really good guys within the top 250 ATP.”

“After that it went straight uphill,” he noted.

And Brown’s 2010 season has continued in the same vein as he won his opening game comfortably in Chennai yesterday, beating Todd Widom of the United States, 6-4, 6-3, in Round One qualifiers.

But the Jamaican, who sports dreadlocks, has set his sights on moving rapidly up the ATP rankings and envisages playing at the famous All England Club this summer.

“The goal for the beginning of 2010 is to get my ranking within the top 100 as soon as possible,” said Brown. “But definitely I want to be playing Wimbledon main draw.”

Last year, Brown played mostly on clay and carpet, while his only hard court game ended in defeat in a finals, (6-3, 5-7, 6-4) with Ukraine’s Ivan Sergeyev in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Back on hard court at the Aircel Chennai Open, India’s largest tennis event, Brown is hoping to claim one of four qualifying spots available.

If he’s successful he could face the likes of 2009 French Open finalist Robin Soderling of Sweden, ranked 9th in the world; former world No 1 Carlos Moya, Marin Cilic and Stanislas Wawrinka.

Surely Brown’s game is on the up and Jamaicans could see him participating in a major slam before the year ends. At this rate his chances look good.