Michael Zheng

Michael Zheng was born in Chesapeake, Virginia, on January 27, 2004, and raised in Montville, New Jersey, by parents who emigrated from Hubei, China. He took the long road rather than the teenage Challenger grind: a New Jersey state high school singles title at Delbarton in 2021, a Wimbledon boys' final, then four years at Columbia, from which he graduated in May 2026 with two NCAA singles championships. The 2024 one was the school's first national college singles title since 1906; defending it made him the first to go back-to-back since Steve Johnson at USC.

He is 6-foot-2, right-handed with a two-handed backhand, and the game is forehand-first off quick feet — his Columbia coach credits a body that filled out and a serve that has caught up to the groundstrokes. The rates read builder, not bomber: a 6.4 percent ace rate and a winners-to-unforced ratio of 0.98 in 2026, with 71 percent of first-serve points won.

The credentials arrived fast. January brought a first tour-level win, over Sebastian Korda in the Australian Open first round; at Wimbledon he beat British No. 1 Cameron Norrie in a fifth-set tiebreak, which the ATP called the biggest win of his career, and Cincinnati yielded Ugo Humbert and a first Masters third round. He is 2-0 against opponents ranked 17-32 this season.

As of September 10, 2026, Norrie's conqueror sits at ATP No. 107 on 590 points — from 182 at season's start, one place off the career high of 106 first reached in late August — with a tour-level ledger of 8-9 and a US Open third round lost in five to Arthur Gea after leading two sets to one. Three Challenger titles, no ATP final yet.