By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Michael Zheng of Montville, N.J. capped probably the greatest sports weekend in Columbia University history when he won the NCAA singles title in Wace, Texas, defeating Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
It marked the first time since Robert LeRoy in 1906 that Columbia has won a national collegiate tennis title and the first time since 1922 that an Ivy League player won the title.
The historic tennis title came one day after the Columbia football team defeated in-state rival Cornell to win its first Ivy League football title since 1961 and only its second ever Ivy title in that sport. (albeit a three-way tie with Dartmouth and Harvard).
Zheng’s win in the first-ever Fall staging of the NCAA individual championships comes six months after he lost in the NCAA singles final in Stillwater, Oklahoma, falling to Alabama’s Filip Planinsek of Slovenia. Unfortunately, Zheng’s title does not guarantee him the traditional wild card entry into the U.S. Open tennis championships that had been traditionally given to American winners of the collegiate championship by the U.S. Tennis Association. The USTA recently announced that rather than giving an American winner of the event a wild card into the tournament, it would invite the American winner and/or runner-up at the NCAAs, plus two more American collegiate players chosen by a committee, into a “wild card” tournament in June to determine the wild card invitation winner. Last year, Zheng was given a wild card into the U.S. Open qualifying tournament, where he lost in the opening round. In 2023, Zheng also received a wild card into the U.S. Open qualifying and won a round before losing in the second round.
Americans Ben Kittay of Lauren Springs, Md., and Gavin Young of Apple Valley, Minn., of the University of Michigan, however, were defeated in the NCAA men’s doubles final, falling to TCU’s Pedro Vives of Spain and Lui Maxted of Britain 6-3, 6-7 (6), 10-2.
In the women’s singles tournament, Dasha Vidmanova of the University of Georgia won the singles title defeating Auburn’s D.J. Bennett of Belleview, Fla., 6-3, 6-3. Vidmanova, from the Czech Republic, also won the NCAA doubles title for the Dawgs last May.
Virginia’s Melodie Collard of Canada and Elaine Chervinsky of Baltimore, Md., won the women’s doubles title beating UCLA’s Kate Fakih of Pasadena, Calif., and Olivia Center of South Pasadena, Calif., 4-6, 6-3, (10-5) in the final.
