From the desk of Michael Zheng: The diary of an American hopeful

Hi, my name is Michael Zheng.

I’m a senior at Columbia University in New York, and I play on the men’s tennis team here. I’m currently ranked 149th on the ATP Tour. We’re only two months into the new year, but I’ve already been to New Caledonia, Melbourne, Charlottesville, Chapel Hill, Ann Arbor, Dallas, and Princeton—and celebrated my 22nd birthday along the way. This spring, I’m hoping to earn my degree, help our team back into the NCAAs final eight, and launch my professional career full time.

As you can see, I’m a little busy at the moment.

But I also know this is a special time in my life, and one that not many athletes or students have the chance to experience. I’m fulfilling two dreams that my parents and I have shared since I was a kid going to public school in a small town in New Jersey: To get the best education that our adopted country has to offer, and to become a pro tennis player.

I’d like to share that experience with you over the next few couple of months, so I’m going to keep a journal as I go. This is my first entry.

I’ll give you some background to start. My parents, Joe and Mei, emigrated from Hubei, China, to the U.S. in the early 2000s, and I was born in Chesapeake, Va., in 2004. After three months, they kind of shipped me back to China, where I lived with my dad’s sister, and when I was around two, we moved to Montville, N.J.

My parents both work in IT. My dad is a self-taught tennis player who picked the game up in his mid-20s in the U.S. He named me for two of his favorite sports stars, Michael Chang and Michael Jordan; he enjoyed watching both of them, and kind of used them as inspiration. He was really big on the tennis dream for me, and we used to play all the time. It was a big moment for me when I finally beat him at 13.

Like a lot of first-generation immigrants, he and my mom wanted the best life for me in this country—the best schools, the best tennis training. I had some success as a junior, and made the final of the Wimbledon boys’ in 2022. So some people wonder why I chose Columbia, an Ivy League university that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, over a dozen other schools with more famous tennis programs. From a tennis perspective, it made sense to me, because the men’s coach, Howie Endelman, had a talent for making his players better in the time they were here. Everyone on the team always improved.

I know not many guys with pro aspirations have taken the road I’ve taken. In between practices, I’m studying, writing papers, giving presentations—I’m a psych major—and living in a dorm in New York City, which is not a Mecca for our sport, especially in the winter. When I started college, I didn’t have any idea that I’d be in a position where I’d be deciding whether to turn pro or not. But I don’t have any regrets. Our team has won the Ivies twice, I’ve won two NCAA singles titles, and every semester my belief in my game has grown. When I graduate, I’ll feel that peace that I can go pro whenever, and I’ve got my degree.

But the first two months of 2026 have been on another level. I won three matches to qualify for the Australian Open, and then won my first ever main-draw match, over Sebastian Korda, a player I’ve been watching for years. I also learned a ton about what life is like like as a pro, and what I need to improve.

I don’t want to say qualifying and beating Korda was unexpected, because I was coming in with a lot of confidence, winning a lot of matches at the college and Challenger levels. I’ve trained enough with the top guys to know that I was playing close with them. And I know that tennis really just comes down to a couple points here and there. So I was like, you know, why not? Why can’t I have a run here? The wins just reinforced that my game is up there with some of the best players in the world.

But the losses also reinforced that there’s work to do, and that not everything is going to be smooth sailing. I injured my adductor in Australia, and Korda got his revenge on me in Dallas. My serve and return need to get better if I’m going to succeed at the highest level. In the second Korda match, I was having trouble just putting a racquet on his serve.

I also learned that winning makes life on the road a lot easier. It’s definitely a tough lifestyle. If you’re doing well, it’s great. But you’re traveling week in, week out to all these different places, and you have no idea how you’re going to do. You could lose first round, you could lose in qualifying, and that becomes a grind, especially if you’re traveling by yourself.

The team atmosphere in college is a lot of fun, and even if you lose, you have the other guys to support you. In the pros, on the road, it can be hard to keep track of what’s going on. When you lose, you head off to a new place, you try to find practices or play matches, you come back to the hotel, you’re tired, you eat, you shower, it can just go by really fast.

All of which is a long way of saying the pro life gives you a lot of motivation to keep winning, and stay in draws for as long as you can.

I’m looking forward to the challenge. I love traveling and seeing new places, and right now I’m hoping my next pro tournament will be in one of the most beautiful places to play, Indian Wells. I’ll be back then with an update from the road.—Michael