Michael Zhu played fair tennis at the University of Michigan, attaining a sub 500 record in his junior (8-11) and senior (9-18) years. The Princeton, NJ native graduated in 2015 and decided to play a Futures in Vero Beach in April 2016, where he won a round – to acquire his first ATP point – but then lost 63 36 67 to some kid named…Denis Shapovalov.
The five foot nine righty who turned 26 in August, didn’t give up. He played a few more ITFs in 2016 and a busy Futures schedule in 2017 to raise his ranking into the 900 range. Undeterred and fueled with self belief, Zhu went all in in 2018.
This year Zhu played 25 events all over the globe. Look at this journey…
Hong Kong – Dallas – San Fran – Egypt (two events) – Israel (three events) – Ukraine – S. Korea (two) – Kong Kong (two) = Shenzen – Chinese Taipei (two) – Boston – Niagara Canada – Toronto – Laguna Niguel – Fountain Valley – Stockton – Ningbo China – Liuzhou China – Shenzen – and now next week a Challenger in Bangalore India.
Zhu began the year ranked 931, slipped down outside 1000 but then rebuilt it back up to 758 and 627 in doubles. He earned $7,080 in singles and $2,800 in doubles.
Could Zhu be a future Victor Estrella Burgos or Tennys Sandgren?
Or is he chasing a rematch with Shapovalov?
chasing the dream · Michael Zhu
George · November 11, 2018 at 7:45 am
Watch this video to see how the top players regard the challenger tour:
https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/video/player-cam-travelling-on-londons-tube-at-nitto-atp-finals-2018
catherine · November 11, 2018 at 8:13 am
The sight of these guys in their nice suits getting on the Tube is beyond funny.
Dan Markowitz · November 12, 2018 at 1:02 pm
Seems a little like Winston Lin who was the top player at Columbia and turned pro after college, but only reached about #700. Very hard for a player of this caliber and only making a pittance to afford a good coach. Estrella Burgos’s story is really special. But that guy is a serious serious talent.