WACO, Texas – Columbia men's tennis junior and three-time All-American
Michael Zheng is leaving Waco with the NCAA singles title after defeating Michigan State's Ozan Baris, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to claim the singles crown on Sunday afternoon.
Zheng is Columbia's first NCAA singles champion of the modern era and is the first Lion to win a singles title since Robert LeRoy won the title in both 1904 and 1906. Zheng is the first men's singles champion from an Ivy League school since Lucien Williams (Yale) won a title in 1922.
"Honestly, it's a huge relief," Zheng said on bouncing back from his runner-up finish earlier this year at the spring NCAA Championships to now winning the NCAA singles title this fall. "It feels amazing to finally get it done and get the title for myself and Columbia."
Zheng forced multiple breaks in the first set to help him jump out to a 6-2 first-set victory. Zheng forced the first break of the match as he came back from 0-30 and won the 40-40 point to go up 2-1. Baris followed with a break before Zheng forced another break to go up, 3-2. Zheng was able to hold serve and capitalized on a Baris error on the deuce point to build up a 5-2 advantage. Zheng served it out to finish the first set with the 6-2 win.
Baris bounced back to take the second set, 6-4, and force a third set to determine the singles champion. Zheng used a break to go up 4-3 about midway through the second set. Baris then used a break to go back on serve, 4-4. Baris took the next two games, including another break to win the second set, 6-4.
Zheng went to work early in the third set and forced a break to take a 2-0 advantage early. Zheng held serve through the third set and forced another break along the way to become the NCAA men's singles champion.
"I knew it was going to be a tough match today," Zheng said. "I knew (Ozan) wanted it really bad and he was going to come out and give it his best. I kind of just did the same. I thought I'm just going to make this third set as tough as possible. I'm happy to get it done."
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