GAME, SET … SLAM!

The father is a Barrington Hills lawyer. The daughter is a Vermont hematologist. Together, this duo has reached amateur tennis’ pinnacle of success— the Grand Slam.

Last November, in Wellington, Florida, Dave Martin and Karlyn Martin achieved a career pinnacle together—on a tennis court. They battled Wisconsin teaching pros Lyle and Kalla Schaefer in the Super Senior division final of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Father-Daughter Clay Court Championships. In the middle of the Martins’ fifth match point in kiln-like conditions—with all four players planted near the net—a Schaefer lifted a lob over Dave.

That was no small feat. Dave stands 6 feet 5 inches, a talented, ageless skyscraper in sneakers. Karlyn, who at age 41 hasn’t lost a step since her All-Ivy League tennis days at Yale, pivoted quickly and dashed to the baseline to keep the point alive, lofting a jetstream high lob.

“The father yelled, ‘I can’t see the ball!’” Dave recalls. The Martins won the point to seal their 6-3, 6-4 victory.

But Dave—father of six, grandfather of nine, and half of the Illinois high school boys tennis state doubles championship duo in 1969—and Karlyn, who had captured the Illinois high school girls tennis state doubles title for Barrington High School (BHS) with her twin, Ashley Martin, in 1999, celebrated more than a national father-daughter championship that day.

They had completed a 2023 Calendar Grand Slam, a feat as rare as a total solar eclipse. The duo had previously won USTA national father-daughter tournaments in Providence, Rhode Island (indoor) in May, in San Diego (hard court) in June, and in Boston (grass court) in August.

The triumph on clay upped Dave’s Gold Ball (the USTA’s most coveted prize) total to seven, five with Karlyn and two with Ashley. The matriarch of this “Barrington Tennis Royalty” family, retired veterinarian Sally Martin, has earned two USTA mother-daughter bronze prizes, both with Ashley.

“After we won in Wellington, my dad said something like, ‘Thanks for dragging me along,’” remembers Karlyn, an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Hematology and Oncology Division at the University of Vermont in Burlington. “But he’s a strong, competitive player, with his net play, his lobs, his drop shots. And his cut serve to the deuce side, the one he uses to frustrate and pull players way off the court … it’s wicked.”

Karlyn swam competitively until she was 14 and garnered eight varsity letters (four in tennis, two in basketball, two in water polo) at BHS before joining Ashley at Yale.

“Karlyn is astute on the tennis court, athletic, and she’s excellent at making mid-match adjustments,” says Dave, who played tennis at Princeton University. “She has such a great return of serve and an outstanding two-handed backhand, both cross court and down the line.”

Karlyn completed her residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and her fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Hematology and Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine before accepting the post at the University of Vermont last September—two months before securing the fourth leg of the Grand Slam.

“I had to quickly find a tennis club in Vermont,” explains Karlyn, who did just that and stayed sharp by training with and competing against formidable talent.

Dave’s longtime home tennis club is the South Barrington Club, where he plays three or four times per week. Dad and daughter tuned up by playing sets against a handful of accomplished netters there and at other Chicago-area clubs ahead of each major last year and then asking for feedback afterward.

“It’s highly competitive at the majors, with typically seven or eight father-daughter pairs capable of winning each,” Dave says. “We wanted to make sure we were as ready as possible for each surface, except for grass courts; there aren’t a lot of those in Illinois.”

Alas, the marvelous Martin tandem likely won’t connect for another calendar Grand Slam in 2024. Karlyn is scheduled to attend a work-related conference in Thailand this summer during the dates of the indoor nationals.

But Dave has a sure-fire backup plan.

“Ashley,” the patriarch says with a baseline-wide grin.

“The greatest thing about playing at these tournaments,” Dave adds, “is the time, usually four days, that I get to spend with an adult daughter while competing in a sport we both love. They are fun opportunities for me, and times I will always cherish.”