Josh Wilson qualifies for Capricornia tennis team at age 13
At age 13, a young tennis prodigy will hit it out against some of the state’s best under-19 players after he qualified for a major tournament, breaking a 15-year-old record.
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Only four years into a budding tennis career, a Mackay junior is already breaking records and turning heads.
Josh Wilson is just 13 years old, but the sporting prodigy was selected in the Capricornia tennis team for an under-19s state tournament.
He said he was late to the court, but a family of tennis players helped him fall in love with the sport.
“I started at nine years old because my brother Luke, Mum and Dad played, so I started then,” he said.
“I was pretty late to it, but I’ve been coached by James Rogers ever since I started and I’m now in the Rogers Tennis Academy.”
Along with a tennis-loving family, James Rogers has helped develop Wilson into a budding star in Mackay.
Wilson said Rogers has been an inspiration as he prepared for the tournament.
“James was (one of) the last Mackay tennis players to make the Capricornia team at 13 years old,” he said.
“Tennis is a lot of learning as you go, and changing things in the swing, and James has really helped me with that.
“At the start it was all basics, having the right motion, but through the time I’ve changed it and he’s helped add some things to get more spin and power.”
Modelling his game on Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Wilson is ready to go up against some of the state’s best teenagers, with the next youngest player aged 16 years.
“This is the first time I’m playing against a lot older people in state competitions,” he said.
“It should be fun, I’m pretty excited to play, I’m going into it and I just want to win one game at the tournament.”
The tournament will run from March 10-13, 2022.
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Originally published as Josh Wilson qualifies for Capricornia tennis team at age 13
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