Thanks in large part to winning gold medals in three successive United States Tennis Association National Open Championships last year, Palisadian Walker Kehrer and his partner, Michael Lin of San Diego, were recently named the No. 1 under-14 doubles team in the nation. Kehrer and Lin accumulated 1,470 ranking points last year’150 points more than the second-ranked tandem from Fayetteville, North Carolina. If the first event of the year had not been rained out, the duo might have completed the ‘grand slam”winning all four National Open events in the same calendar year. Though he is not yet old enough to compete at the high school level, Kehrer looks forward to playing at Brentwood School next spring. While most of his success has been in doubles, Kehrer is also an accomplished singles player. He reached the finals at Newport Beach and also netted back-to-back silver medals in the Boys’14s division, raising his USTA singles ranking into the Top 25 for the first time in his career. With nearly a year left in his age group, Kehrer has his sights set on moving even higher. Kehrer and Lin have played doubles together since age 11 on the national stage. Although they live 120 miles apart and rarely meet outside of tournaments, they’ve joined forces at National Open and National Championship events from coast to coast. They were quarterfinalists at the summer National Hard Court Championships in San Antonio, Texas and semifinalists in the Southern California Doubles Championships in November.
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