THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London — Six weeks ago in Paris, Michael Zheng’s two lives conflicted one last time.
Try to play the French Open, or walk in graduation from Columbia University, one of the jewels of the Ivy League? These are the choices that Zheng, who at the time was a 22-year-old undergraduate and a very good tennis player, has had to face for a while now.
“If I lost my first-round qualifying match, I would have time to fly back, but then I ended up winning,” Zheng said during an interview after a first-round win this week at Wimbledon, where he had to survive qualifying as well.
Zheng kind of sensed that he wasn’t going to lose early in Paris. He’d stuffed his cap and gown in his bag before he left. So amid the tumult of the qualifying tournament, he stole a few minutes to throw on the light blue gown and matching cap and snap some photos.
Maybe he wasn’t all that different from his classmates. Plenty of them would enjoy a post-graduation European trip this summer, too.
It’s been that kind of year for Zheng. In June of 2025, the reigning NCAA singles champion lost a playoff for a wild card entry into the U.S. Open main draw. No problem. Two months later, he won three matches at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows and qualified on his own, just as the school year was getting underway across the East River in Manhattan.
In January, after winning a second consecutive NCAA title, he pulled off the same qualifying trick at the Australian Open. He also won his first-round match there, upsetting Sebastian Korda, a top compatriot, in five sets. The whole venture caused him to miss the start of the second semester at Columbia, where he was trying to finish up a degree in psychology.
May brought the conflict with graduation. In late June, free and clear of his academic responsibilities for the first time since pre-school in New Jersey, Zheng survived qualifying at Roehampton in southwest London, a few miles away from the hallowed lawns at the All England Club.
That made him the first college player to qualify for all four Grand Slams in the span of a single academic year, give or take a couple of weeks.
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Zheng, the world No. 144, does not appear to be done. In his opening match at Wimbledon, he beat Cameron Norrie, the best of the Brits this year, in a match-deciding fifth-set tiebreak. Then he defeated Nicolás Mejía of Colombia, to set up a Centre Court meeting with the No. 3 seed, Félix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
Auger-Aliassime is taking nothing for granted, no matter how strange it might be that Zheng, the first player from Columbia to win an NCAA singles title since 1906, has now landed a spot in the final 32 of the world’s most important tennis tournament.
“Very interesting path,” Auger-Aliassime, 25, said of Zheng the other day. “I like how he plays. He’s very tricky, he’s got a great tennis IQ, got great ball control. It’s going to be a tough one. It’s not a surprise he’s in the third round.”
Well, it’s a bit of a surprise. Zheng doesn’t even have an agent yet. Lots of folks called after he beat Korda in Australia. Not wanting to violate any NCAA rules, he shelved the matter until after his college career.
There’s been some conversations the past month, some narrowing down, but no decisions as of yet. Zheng, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. to pursue advanced degrees before he was born and never left, said he is taking everything one step at a time.
“I don’t feel like I’m in a situation where that would affect me, I’m not like a huge superstar,” Zheng said. “It’s just focusing about the tennis right now. And then I think all the money and endorsements will come later on if I end up reaching that level.”
The tennis. He’s very good at it, and he’s gotten much better in the last year, especially on the two most important shots in the game: the serve and the return. He chalks that up to lots of weekend flights between New York and Delray Beach, Fla., to work with his coach, Ruan Roelofse, who is South African.
There was a lot of academic work to be done on planes, too.
Roelofse previously coached Chris Eubanks, the U.S. player-turned-broadcaster, and when they were together Eubanks made the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Roelofse has plenty of work to do with Zheng, but also plenty to work with. Zheng has wheels, and is a seriously clean hitter with pretty terrific timing. He’s a wispy 6-foot-2 and can get a lot stronger. His serve is getting better, but it’s still just a few clicks more than a point-starter.
Someone who has seen all that development up close is his college coach at Columbia, Howie Endelman, who has been watching from Zheng’s box at Wimbledon. He’s been seeing the same things that helped Zheng to his two college singles titles.
“Composure when things go wrong,” Endelman said in an interview. “Courage to trust himself and go for his shots in big moments. Serving with confidence when down break points.”
Roelofse, Endelman and Les Smith, a junior coach from New Jersey, where Zheng grew up, are Zheng’s entourage these days. He also has a cousin who lives locally. He’s gotten him a ticket. Since he qualified and won a match, a few friends have wanted to come. He was trying to get it sorted.
He didn’t expect to qualify for all the Grand Slams at this point, much less win actual Grand Slam matches. But he said his big lesson of the first few months, and what little exposure he has had to the top tier of the sport, is how close the talent level is up and down the rankings.
Michael Zheng’s speed and timing are the standout features of his game. (Shi Tang / Getty Images)
“I think a lot of the winning and losing has to do with style matchups and some certain guys match up well against others,” he said. “Obviously you have two guys, (Jannik) Sinner and (Carlos) Alcaraz, who have kind of separated themselves a little but I think between everyone else, everyone believes they have a chance against each other. It’s just really close.”
He puts himself up as evidence. He lost two matches in two ATP Challenger tournaments, one rung below the main tour, before coming into Wimbledon. Now he’s won five matches in a row.
The tennis is a lot different from how it was at college. Best-of-five-set matches. Deuce scoring. Lets on serve get played. The lifestyle is pretty different, too.
“You’re on the road so much,” Zheng said. “There’s so many highs and lows. So it is basically just trying to be as steady as possible, and managing to weather those losses and not let it affect you for your next couple matches. Then you have a run like here, and then you kind of forget about those losses. You try to keep moving on and building on these results.”
At least there is no more homework to get in the way.
