Men’s Tennis 2025 Recruiting Class Ranked No. 4 Nationally By Tennis Recruiting Network
1/28/2025 2:34:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Columbia secures the highest ranked class in the Ivy League
NEW YORK – The future is bright for the Columbia men's tennis program as Bidyut K. Goswami Head Coach of Men's Tennis Howard Endelman has assembled a 2025-26 recruiting class that is ranked No. 4 by the Tennis Recruiting Network.
Columbia's incoming group this fall is highly touted and ranked at the top of the Ivy League. The Lions came in just behind TCU, North Carolina and Vanderbilt on the Tennis Recruiting Network list. Kentucky rounds out the top 5. Ivy League tennis continues to excel on the national stage with four Ivy teams finishing the spring 2024 season ranked in the top 35 nationally.
"We are pleased with this class – academically, athletically and character-wise," Endelman said. "Assistant Coach Ismael Merino has quickly hit the ground running and has done an excellent job seamlessly embracing the culture of the program."
Endelman again found success on the recruiting trail over the offseason after turning in the No. 10 recruiting class by Tennis Recruiting Network for 2024-25. Columbia has now posted national top-5 recruiting classes in four of the last six years.
No. 7 Columbia continues to compete among the nation's best as it began the 2025 campaign this past weekend with wins over Miami and #24 Florida, the 2021 NCAA Team Champions.
Columbia enjoyed its best season in program history in 2024, a season that saw the Lions advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time ever. Columbia knocked off 13 opponents ranked inside the ITA Top 75 along the way and peaked at No. 4 in the ITA Rankings on February 20, 2024, which is the highest national ranking in Ivy League history. The Lions defeated then-No. 13 Harvard in a hard-fought 4-3 home victory that helped seal Columbia's 17th conference championship and the first Ivy League Championship during Endelman's tenure as head coach after six Ivy titles as associate head coach and two as a player.
Following the NCAA Team Championships in May 2024, Michael Zheng competed in the NCAA Singles Championships, while Zheng and Theo Winegar competed in the NCAA Doubles Championships. Zheng continued an already historic season as he made a run to the NCAA Singles Championship match, finishing as the 2024 runner-up. Zheng also earned singles All-American honors for the second season in a row. Zheng was named the ITA National Player to Watch following the conclusion of the season.
Zheng continued his successful collegiate career this past fall as he became Columbia's first NCAA singles champion of the modern era. The three-time All-American defeated Michigan State's Ozan Baris, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to claim the singles crown this past November 2024 in Waco, Texas. Zheng 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.
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