Mario Ancic on Michael Zheng: 'It's exceptional what he's doing'
One of the best stories of the Australian Open has been the breakthrough of Michael Zheng, the Columbia University senior who qualified for his first major main draw before upsetting Sebastian Korda to reach the second round.
The 21-year-old is not the only person who has a connection with both Columbia and the ATP Tour. Mario Ancic, the former No. 7 player in the PIF ATP Rankings who stunned Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2002 and made the semi-finals two years later, attended Columbia Law School and graduated in 2015.
The Croatian remains based in New York as a Principal at the private equity company One Equity Partners. The 41-year-old follows the Columbia tennis team closely and over the years and has gotten to know its players, including Zheng.
“I think it’s exceptional what he’s doing, and he’s a very humble person, very humble kid,” Ancic told ATPTour.com. “What all these guys are doing: Going to classes — very intense — competing amongst the best and the brightest in the country and internationally, and then still committing to being part of the programme that’s Top 10 in the country is nothing short of inspirational.”
Ancic is in close contact with head coach Howard Endelman and heard about Zheng before he even began playing for the Ivy League institution. In 2022, Zheng reached the Wimbledon boys’ singles final.
“He came heavily recruited. I believe he already had some great results in junior Grand Slams and I was very excited to see that somebody with a lot of success already at ITF [level] committed to come to play for Columbia,” Ancic said. “I actually remember him since he was a freshman. We talked, I met his family. He has a great family behind him and it was obviously very exciting to speak to him and play with him and see his success since.”
Ancic always thought the two-time NCAA singles champion had a great game entering college, and got the sense that Zheng was a hard worker who was very committed.
“He never rushed anything. I see a lot of junior players are like, ‘I’ve got to be on ATP, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that’. He took time to develop his game,” Ancic said. “I think he developed physically, which is always very important.”
The Croatian pointed to Zheng’s work to become stronger and add muscle with the help of the Columbia coaching staff as important to his development as a player.
“I think that helped him also to develop some bigger shots and more weapons. His questions were always, ‘What do I need to do so I can compete with professionals?’” Ancic said. “I’ve seen him develop that game, develop bigger shots, a bigger game that can effectively help him ‘hurt’ other players with some bigger weapons. And I think that’s a testament to him, his family, and the programme.”
Not only does Ancic understand the tennis side of what Zheng is going through, but he is one of few who can put his feet in his fellow Lion’s academic shoes. Not only has Zheng been training hard to improve on the tennis court, but he has done so while shining in the classroom.
“It’s a commitment. You live in New York. They have classes, they live on campus. It’s on 116th Street, and the tennis courts are on 218th Street. So it’s not like everything is just there. You have to commute,” Ancic said. “New York is not the easiest city to commute [in], so the days are long. I know the guys… the team would be studying past midnight, early mornings, getting ready for classes, but still fully committed to do their best at the tennis court.
“Commuting back and forth between the tennis centre and the campus, and just going through the rigorous academic program is just something that is remarkable and what Michael was able to achieve to play at that level going through this programme and just representing the Lions in the best possible ways, it just makes us all very proud.”
[NO 1 CLUB]Ancic understands what it takes to succeed on and off the court. When a player who beat Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray glows about someone like he did about Zheng — who next faces Corentin Moutet in Melbourne — it speaks volumes.
“He’s always had a great demeanour about him, believing in himself and always giving his best, fighting. You always knew with Michael that he’s going to give it all on the court. That’s just something that always resonated with me when I was watching,” Ancic said. “This kid is a true example of a student-athlete. He’s committed to the programme, he’s committed to the classes, and he’s committed to the team in a sense that every time I watch him play, he always would give 100 per cent.
“Of course, when you have that mentality, there’s many times in a tennis match where you have this opportunity to win them. If you are stable, if you are mentally strong, opportunities arise in a tennis match. He always had that talent within himself.”
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Another Croatian, former World No. 3 Marin Cilic, watched 30 minutes of Zheng’s opening win against Korda. Cilic said about the college star: “Really, really interesting. A player [who] has got a very diverse game. There are a lot of things that he does well. You still see that it’s a work in progress, that let’s say if he works himself the next two, three, four years, that he can definitely develop into a great player. What I loved about [him] was [he was] playing for the first time in a Grand Slam, playing a guy, Sebastian, who is a fantastic player, and having such incredible composure and also a physical ability and mental ability to stay and to win in five.”
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