It was a big day for local tennis players as three of them captured titles at their respective individual tournaments on Wednesday and one doubles squad reached a championship match.

At the SCVAL De Anza Division tournament at Monta Vista High, Palo Alto junior Aashli Budhijara completed her run through the singles bracket by defeating highly regarded Wendi Kong of Monta Vista, 7-5, 2-6, 3-2 (retired). Kong is the No. 1 singles player on the top-ranked team in Northern California.

Earlier in the day, Budhiraja polished off Juliette Martin of Los Altos, 6-0, 6-4, in the semifinals. Budhiraja advanced past the quarterfinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Monta Vista's Ruri Kobayakawa on Tuesday.

At the SCVAL El Camino Division tournament at Fremont High, Gunn's Alice Li captured the singles title and teammates Antoinette Nguyen and Anjali Herekar finished third by beating teammates Devyani Bhadkamkar-Ebba Nord.

Li topped Keaensa Snouffer of Los Gatos, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, while Herekar and Nguyen posted a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over their teammates. Li advanced to the finals with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Hannah Huang of Homestead.

At the West Bay Athletic League tournament at Menlo School, sophomore Liz Yao of Menlo needed two days to complete her singles championship match with Paulette Wolak of Castilleja, but the wait was well worth it as Yao won her first league title with a 6-3, 6-0 triumph.

Yao was leading, 6-3, 2-0 on Tuesday when the match was suspended due to darkness. The two returned to the courts to finish the match less than 24 hours later.

Wolak was the top singles player from the lower WBAL Skyline Division while leading the Gators to the division title -- earning Castilleja a promotion to the Foothill Division next season. Thus, it was appropriate that the top players from each division met in the title match.

Wolak showed that she deserved a shot at the overall title by upending three-time champ Giannina Ong of Menlo in the semifinals on Tuesday, 6-0, 6-3. Yao, meanwhile, moved up after losing in the second round last season.

At the Peninsula Athletic League tournament at Burlingame High, Menlo-Atherton's tandem of Lindy LaPlante and Erin LaPorte won a pair of matches on Wednesday to reach the championship on Thursday.

Teammate Emily Andrew, however, fell in the singles semifinals.

Next up for the top girls' teams will be the Central Coast Section tournament next week.

Boys' water polo
Menlo School closed out its regular season with a 22-8 win over Burlingame in PAL Bay Division action Wednesday. Menlo (4-1, 14-10) honored its seven seniors in their final home game. Freshman Chris Xi and senior Alexander Carlisle each tallied five goals for Menlo while senior Micah Rosales added three.

Derrick Ho had a pair of goals while fellow senior Cameron Walker added one.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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