Week 32 ATP pick
Right-handed, currently No. 113 in the ATP singles rankings.
Career-High Rank
No. 113
SINGLES
Current Rank
No. 113
ATP SINGLES
Age
22
B. 27 JAN 2004
RTT Pick
Wk 32
RISING STAR
Country
🇺🇸 USA
Tour
ATP singles
Plays
Right-handed
Age
22
Born
27 January 2004
Current Rank
No. 113
Career High
No. 113
Career W–L
95–52
2026 W–L
20–11
Born in Chesapeake, Virginia and raised in Montville, New Jersey, Zheng reached the 2022 Wimbledon boys' final — then chose the classroom over the tour. At Columbia he became the program's first first-year ITA All-American, and after finishing NCAA singles runner-up in spring 2024 he won the national title that November, the Ivy League's first NCAA singles champion in more than a century. A year later he defended it, the first back-to-back NCAA singles champion since Steve Johnson in 2011–12. While still enrolled he ripped off a 15-match Challenger winning streak with three titles in 2025 (Chicago, Columbus, Tiburon), collected the 2026 Hurd Award — a $100,000 grant for America's top college-to-pro prospect — and, in his final semester of a psychology degree, qualified in Melbourne and beat world No. 51 Sebastian Korda in five sets in his very first tour-level match.
"This is what every kid dreams of." — after beating Cameron Norrie at Wimbledon; Men's Journal, June 2026
2026 turned the promise into proof. He qualified at three straight majors — beating top quali seed Jesper de Jong at Roland Garros — and on his Wimbledon debut stunned British No. 1 Cameron Norrie in a fifth-set tie-break, his first top-50 win. He backed it up against Nicolas Mejia with 20 aces over 3h49m, saving all twelve break points, to become the first Columbia player ever to reach a Grand Slam third round, where No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime ended the run on Centre Court. He graduated in May, and July brought a semifinal at the Bloomfield Hills Challenger, a Los Cabos main-draw win over Martin Landaluce — a rematch of their 2022 boys' semifinal — and a 6–3, 6–1 dismissal of former world No. 4 Kei Nishikori in Montreal qualifying. This week he sits at a career-high No. 113.
"NCAAs definitely prepared me."
AFTER BEATING KORDA AT THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN · TENNIS.COM, JAN 2026"I think college prepares you really well for that."
ON BIG-STAGE PRESSURE · ATPTOUR.COM, JUL 2026"I try and get the serve and forehand like him."
ON MODELING HIS GAME ON FEDERER · SI.COM, AUG 2025