Karl plays grass court semifinals, Caballero readies for clay
By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Ravenwood’s Sean Karl and Lauren Caballero just wrapped up their second season ending with state high school tennis titles, but that was just a warm-up for major summer tournaments on the national level.

Karl, who capped his sophomore season as two-time TSSAA Class AAA boys singles champion, has reached the 18s semifinals so far this week in the U.S. Junior International Grass Court Championships in Philadelphia. He also has been training at the U.S. Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Fla., and has several other big tourneys coming up.

Lauren Caballero serves during the state high school team semis. She helped Ravenwood win repeat team and doubles titles despite recovering from mononucleosis. (Photo by Peg Fredi)

“We have known each other since kindergarten, so it’s definitely cool to see,” Caballero said last week of their high school success last month. “We have a picture of us like in 3^rd grade, and it’s really neat to see friends from kindergarten and here we are playing state together.”

They didn’t get to see much of each other’s second state titles in the TSSAA individual tourney  –  Karl in boys singles and Caballero in girls doubles – except the first day when they were playing on adjacent courts. And they won’t likely run into each other this summer much, except maybe at the Southern Closed in Mobile, Ala., June 18-25.

Karl will compete in Florida, Philly, Lexington and Kalamazoo

Karl, who took the No. 1 national ranking in 18s from buddy Maxx Lipman of Brentwood High briefly this spring, will spend a lot of time at the USTA center in Florida. Plus, after the Southerns, he will play the National Open in Lexington, Ky., the National Clay Courts in Delray Beach, Fla., and the National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Sean Karl has won two state boys singles titles in both years at RHS. (Submitted photo by Tammy Caballero)

He figures he’ll be home maybe about 4 weeks total off and on all summer.

“Grass is pretty new – it’s not exactly what I’d call my specialty,” Karl said Saturday going into this week’s tourney.

Of course, he’s won three matches so far – pretty far competition from his waltz through the Tennessee state high school draw last month.

“It was good to repeat for sure,” Karl said. “There’s a decent amount of pressure to get the repeat. It’s good to get something for the school.”

Karl has been hitting recently with former professional player Brian Baker, a Nashville native who had a U.S. Open upset win. He says practicing with Baker has helped his game, especially since Lipman hasn’t been cleared to return from a stress fracture in his back.

 “It’s tough he’s injured,” Karl said. “He’s my main training partner so it’s tough for both of us.”

Lipman’s injury also took him out of the entire high school season, which kept the best friends from an unusual No. 1 vs. No. 2 national showdown in BHS-RHS district matches and most likely the region finals.

“That would have been our biggest match. The region would have been tougher than the state I would think,” Karl said.

Karl’s top goals this season are to get an opportunity at the U.S. Open and possibly get a pro point by winning a match on the Futures Tour.

Caballero, Karl and Iris Hao celebrate state crowns.

 “I’ve been trying to get more free points off my first service,” he said about his training. “I’ve been working on improving my return to put pressure on people. … And I’ve been trying to work on different patterns from the back, opening it up in different ways.”

The rising Raptors junior hasn’t officially narrowed his colleges down but is looking at Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Virginia and several SEC schools in general. Karl also checked out UCLA and Pepperdine while at the Easter Bowl tournament, where he made the semifinals last year.

He’s celebrating his 17^th birthday this month, but he didn’t mark his first-time No. 1 national ranking recent.

“It felt really good. I didn’t do anything particular, just kept practicing,” Karl said.

Caballero will go from Gulf Coast to West Coast

Caballero’s ranking as 18th in the USTA Southerns 18s and 10th in 16s will get her a seeding in the upcoming Southerns, but she wasn’t able to get a medical exemption for qualifying because she played the state high school tourney with mono.

She helped lead the Lady Raptors to their repeat state championship in the Class AAA girls team tourney, winning in the semifinals before having to withdraw due to illness in the finals.

“I wasn't too happy when I was diagnosed with mono because obviously it was going to put me down for a little bit,” Caballero said last week. “I wasn't able to practice going into state. I got through the first match, but I was definitely feeling it in the second set.”

After taking her first ever medical timeout to regain her stamina, she closed out the match 6-1, 6-2. But in the team finals, her coach and team knew she might not be able to make it through the match against White Station rival and friend Kayla Jones.

“At 5-6, I just knew it was not good for my body to stay out there any longer, because I wasn't going to even be able to run to balls, so I decided it was probably time to withdraw,” she said.

The next two days, however, Caballero was able to play doubles – and win for the second year – this time with a new partner, freshman Iris Hao.

Caballero, right, teamed up with freshman Iris Hao for her second state doubles championship.

“I was able to to get enough energy to play those matches,” she said. “We actually did not drop a game the whole entire way through that.

“But it was really nice to have Iris there definitely, because playing doubles is a little bit easier. She knew if there was going to be a ball way across the court, I wasn’t going to be able to run to it so she would run across.”

Caballero said in addition to getting back to 100% healthy and improving her game to get ready for the next level, she is concentrating on making a college decision and scheduling official visits. She has already made unofficial visits to Kentucky and Alabama of the Southeastern Conference and to Samford and Furman of the Southern Conference.

“I'm still trying to figure out which balance I want,” the rising RHS senior said. “I know I'm definitely wanting to play DI, but I'm just trying to decide the difference of what college tennis would be like in the top-tier SEC, or like a Southern Conference which is still a high conference.”

She is ranked 78^th in her class nationally according to Tennis Recruiting. She’s new to the SuperNational Clays this summer, but lost her next two matches after winning her opener at the SuperNational Hard Courts.

“So I’m definitely looking to have a better performance this year,” Caballero said.

She’ll probably get in some practice on the clay courts at Maryland Farms YMCA before heading to a USTA Regional National tourney in Birmingham and then to the Memphis event. In the meantime, she’s trying to rest up after saying last week she was tiring after 1½ hours on the court from her illness.

“It's really nice. I really do enjoy playing high school tennis,” Caballero said of repeating at state. “To play for a team to win, it's different.

“All the other tournaments you go to, you’re playing individually and you’re just playing for yourself and your ranking. But what I really like about the state and the state title, is it's for a team, it’s for your school, it’s for something that's above yourself. I really enjoy that.”