MELBOURNE – Columbia men's tennis senior Michael Zheng's impressive run at the Australian Open concluded in the second round when he lost to No. 32 Corentin Moutet from France. Zheng, a native of Montville, N.J., was trailing 6-3, 1-6, 3-6, 0-2 before retiring due to an injury.
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In only his second career Grand Slam match, Zheng started strong, taking a 3-0 lead in the first set. After overcoming a love-30 deficit while leading 2-0, he held serve and maintained his advantage.
Moutet secured a game to reduce the deficit to 3-1, but Zheng won all four points in the fifth game, extending his lead to 4-1. Moutet struggled with his serve during the sixth game, committing three double faults, enabling Zheng to pull ahead to 5-1. Despite Moutet's back-to-back sets, Zheng ultimately clinched the first set 6-3.
The match saw pivotal errors that influenced the outcome. In the first set, Moutet recorded five double faults and 13 unforced errors. This changed as Zheng's performance deteriorated; he had only seven errors in the first set but accumulated 15 in the subsequent sets, while Moutet committed just nine errors overall.
After the second set was tied at 1-1, Moutet dominated, winning five consecutive games to take the set 6-1. He continued his momentum into the third set, winning it 6-3 while leading 2-0 when Zheng retired.
Zheng made history as the first Columbia men's tennis player to reach the main draw of a Grand Slam singles event since Phil Williamson at the US Open in 1993.
The back-to-back NCAA singles national champion and four-time All-American will return to Columbia later this week to rejoin his teammates on the 10th-ranked men's tennis team. The Lions are set to host Illinois, Florida, and Kentucky for the ITA Kickoff at the Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center this Friday and Saturday.