Columbia University’s Michael Zheng won the NCAA singles championship for the second year in a row today in Orlando, FL. He beat SMU’s Trevor Svajda 64 16 63.
The last man to repeat as NCAA champ was Steve Johnson back in 2012.
Zheng has won three ATP Challenger titles this year and currently ranks at 185 on the ATP World Tour.
The 21 year old from Montville, NJ has inspired rave reviews from a notable tennis journalist Dan C. Weil, who has observed the young American’s rise this year via live stream and also live in person.
Weil, a former freelance writer for Tennis Magazine and founding partner of this site, asserts that Zheng will be a better pro than Learner Tien, Steve Johnson and even James Blake who was once ranked 4 in the world. That controversial prediction invited some scorn from another notable tennis journalist and author Dan Markowitz but Weil is sticking to his guns, stating confidently, “Blake was a great athlete who played tennis, Zheng is a great tennis player who plays tennis.”
Zheng has ascended up the ranks slowly, He was a blue chip prospect in high school, he extended Arthur Fils to match point in the first round at Orange Bowl the year Fils won it. Zheng also served as a hitting partner at New York Open for a bunch of ATP players five years ago. He has fallen short at US Open qualies the last two years (lost to Majchrzak and Kym 2R) but this year has been a breakout for Zheng by winning three Challenger titles.
It’s more than possible Zheng is a slower, later bloomer with an instinctive sense to not rush to pro tennis success which has been the bane for a long list of hot prospects who showed flashes of brilliance but unfortunately fizzled out before age 24-25.
Certain astute tennis observers with decades of experience following the pro tour simply can read the signs and qualities that are not so obvious on the surface. Gunther Bresnik saw the inner champion in Dominic Thiem. Larri Passos knew Gustavo Kuerten had the complete arsenal. Richard Williams discovered early on his two daughters were future WTA queens and the younger one would be a little better. Pete Fischer identified the genius inside young Pete Sampras.
In boxing, Cus Damato realized in the first few minutes he saw 14 year old Mike Tyson throwing punches he would be future Heavyweight champion of the world. Six years later the prophecy fulfilled
Dan Weil sees enormous potential ahead for Michael Zheng. And as time marches on and the victories amass, it’s becoming more difficult to argue with Dan and his capacity to see the future.
ATP · Columbia · Michael Zheng · NCAA
Steve · November 25, 2025 at 8:08 am
Will he get 13 wild cards into the US Open like Donald Young?
Scoop Malinowski · November 25, 2025 at 8:59 am
Young got that many WCs into US Open? I know Kozlov never got one. Zheng is ranked 185 right now, he will be top 100 soon and wont need any WC help.