Menlo-Atherton tennis players Tessa Ellingson and Eva Chow gave the Bears their first-ever Central Coast Section individual title when they teamed up to win the doubles title at Bay Club-Courtside in Los Gatos Wednesday.
The Bears had a chance to double up, but Ava Martin fell in the singles championship match for the second year in a row.
Tessa Ellingson and Eva Chow, M-A’s No. 2 and No. 3 singles players, teamed up and earned the No. 1 seed in CCS. Then ended up beating second-seeded Lelani Laruelle and Zoe Laruelle of Monta Vista, 6-2, 6-4, going through the entire tournament without dropping a set.
Ellingson and Chow opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Menlo School’s Andra Braicu and Izzy Klugman. In the quarterfinals, the M-A pair won 6-1, 6-2 over Ariella Chua-Gozani and Tali Gabovich of Crystal Springs. In the semifinals, Ellingson and Chow posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over fifth-seeded Arin Akkaya and Natasha Doan.
Martin, M-A’s No. 1 singles player the last two years and the No. 2 seed, came up short in the CCS singles final, falling to Cupertino’s Gayathri Krishnan, the No. 2 seed, 6-2, 6-2.
It’s the second time in two years that the pair have met in the final, with Krishnan winning in the 2021 title in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
When Martin made the 2021 final, she became the first singles player from the PAL to make the championship match since San Mateo’s Leslie O’Keefe won the title in 1989.
Like her teammates Ellingson and Chow, Martin waltzed into the championship match by winning her three matches in straight sets. She opened with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Leland’s Katelyn Bump. In the second round, she blitzed Santa Catalina’s Lara Yuan, winning 6-0, 6-0. In the semifinals, Martin got past Evergreen Valley’s Rachel Gee, 6-2, 6-3.
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