Zheng Faces Svajda for Second Straight NCAA Singles Title; Brantmeier Reaches Women's Final; Urhobo Seeks Second Title at W35 Boca Raton; Reddy Falls in ITF J300 Zapopan Final

Americans will play for all four NCAA titles Sunday, led by defending  champion Michael Zheng of Columbia, who is making history with every win he records at the Division I individual championships this week at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona Florida.

For the second straight match, the 21-year-old senior needed a third set to keep his winning streak alive, but he took control after dropping the second set to beat 9-16 seed Paul Inchauspe of Princeton 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. 

Zheng is only the second player to reach three consecutive NCAA finals, equaling the result of Virginia's Somdev Devvarman, who reached the 2006 final his sophomore year and won the title in 2007 and 2008. (Records showing finalists extend back to 1977). If Zheng matches Devvarman with a second title tomorrow, he will be the seventh man to go back-to-back since the NCAA began sponsoring the national championships in 1938; Steve Johnson of USC is the last to do it, in 2011 and 2012. Zheng can also set the record for most NCAA wins; Devvarman lost in the second round in his freshman year, while Zheng advanced to the round of 16 when he was a freshman.

Zheng's opponent in the final can also make history, with Trevor Svajda of SMU having an opportunity to become the first Mustang to win an NCAA tennis title. The 19-year-old Californian equaled the performance of 1986 finalist Richey Reneberg when he sailed past Martin Borisiouk of North Carolina State 6-2, 6-0.

Svajda has dominated on serve in his last three matches and although stats are not available for these matches, his first serve percentage today was extraordinarily high. Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets asked him about that enhancement to his game in the post-match interview.

"I change something in my technique like, once a month," Svajda said. "It's not because it's not working, I just get bored with the same techniques over and over. I figure out something new and I'm like, oh wait I like that, I'm serving harder, or I have a better kick serve and it helps me have fun still with it...this is the longest I've stuck with a technique, it's been over a month."

Zheng and Svajda have not played, but Zheng has noticed the results Svajda has posted on the Pro Circuit and in college this summer and fall.

"It's obviously not going to be an easy match," Zheng told Gruskin. "He's playing some really good tennis and I think he's looked really good his last couple of matches, winning in pretty dominant fashion. Obviously, he's had a great summer as well, making his first Challenger final....I think he's in form right now so it's going to be a tough one. I'll give it my best and hopefully walk away with the title."

This is just the second time in history (again, records from 1977 to the present) that the men's final will feature two unseeded players; the first was just 18 months ago, when Zheng lost to Filip Planinsek of Alabama in the Stillwater Oklahoma final.

Both Svajda and Zheng have now qualified for the USTA's US Open Collegiate Playoff next summer.

North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier won the NCAA team title as a freshman on the same National Campus courts in 2023; the senior can now win a second NCAA title when she faces unseeded Berta Passola Folch of Cal for the singles championship.

Brantmeier, a 9-16 seed, won her fourth three-set match of the week today, beating unseeded Jana Hossam Salah of Southern California 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.  

"Luckily I've gotten a lot of practice at that this week," the 21-year-old from Wisconsin told Gruskin. "So coming out for the third I was prepared. It's tough, seeing the finish line a little bit. She clawed her way back, did a great job of making me play a lot of balls... but I had my chances in the second set, so I just needed to reset....honestly, I'd be concerned if it wasn't three sets at this point."

Brantmeier is aiming for North Carolina's second NCAA singles title, with Jamie Loeb's title in 2015 the first. She has also qualified for the USTA US Open Collegiate Playoff.

Passola Folch was the only woman who had reached the semifinals without losing a set, but the senior from Spain had to save a match point to get past Emily Welker of Mississippi 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(7).

Passola Folch served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but couldn't close it out, and also struggled in the subsequent tiebreaker, which she led 5-1. Up 6-4, Passola Folch couldn't convert either of those match points, with Welker hitting a winner on the first and Passola Folch missing an overhead on the second. Welker took a 7-6 lead for her match point, but made a backhand error, and Passola Folch stepped up her aggression in the next two points, hitting a slice approach that drew an error from Welker to earn a third match point, which she converted with a big forehand in the corner that forced an error.

"I think I took a bit of a step back, I wasn't as aggressive," the 20-year-old said when Gruskin asked how the second set slipped away from her. "I started out the second set well, but took that step back, which was not the right thing to do in that moment. I just got too defensive and obviously, you lose your rhythm a little bit. But I'm glad I was able to step back in that third set and close it out, somehow."

Passola Folch is the first Cal player to reach the NCAA singles final since Lynn Chi, also unseeded, lost to Danielle Collins of Virginia in the 2014 championship match in Athens Georgia. The last Cal champion is Jana Juricova, who won the 2011 title at Stanford.

Brantmeier and Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster of Vanderbilt are the only seeds remaining in contention for a title, with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Roisin Gilheany and Gloriana Nahum of Oklahoma 6-3, 6-2. Mohr and Webster will play for Vanderbilt's first NCAA women's doubles title against unseeded Victoria Osuigwe and Gabriella Broadfoot, who beat unseeded Daniela Borruel and Lily Fairclough of Southern Cal 6-4,  6-7(3), 10-3. NC State's sole NCAA doubles title came in 2022, when Jaeda Daniel and Nell Miller won in Champaign.

Ohio State's dominance in men's doubles continues, with the Buckeyes having a team in the championship match four of the past five years. This year it is unseeded Nikita Filin and Brandon Carpico, who defeated unseeded Manfredi Graziana and Aaron Sandler of Penn 7-6(2), 6-4. Filin and Carpico have now won 11 straight matches, which includes a title at last week's M25 in Columbus, and have not dropped a set in any of those 11 victories.

In 2023, James Trotter and Andrew Lutschaunig won the title and in May of 2024 Robert Cash and JJ Tracy won the title to give Ohio State two of the last three men's doubles championships. Filin and Carpico, as an all-American team, have qualified for the USTA's US Open Collegiate Wild Card playoffs.

Their opponents in the final are the unseeded Virginia pair of Mans Dahlberg and Dylan Dietrich, who dismissed unseeded Tanapatt Nirundorn and Henry Jefferson of Florida 6-1, 6-4.

Virginia's last NCAA men's doubles title was claimed by Jarmere Jenkins and Mac Styslinger in 2013.

The singles finals are scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday, with the doubles final to follow, not before 12:30 p.m.

The ESPN streaming links are here; the live scoring is here.  Interviews with all the singles semifinalists can be viewed at the Cracked Racquets YouTube Channel.

At the W35 in Boca Raton, 18-year-old Akasha Urhobo is through to her fifth USTA Pro Circuit women's final, after the fifth seed defeated No. 6 seed Gergana Topalova of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-2 today.

Urhobo, who is 1-3 in her previous finals, will face No. 3 seed Francesa Pace of Italy, who beat No. 2 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(3). Pace beat Urhobo in three sets  last month in the semifinals of the W35 in Redding California.

Urhobo lost in today's doubles final, with No. 3 seeds Ema Burgic(Baylor) of Bosnia and Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) beating No. 2 seeds Urhobo and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) 1-6, 7-6(5), 11-9.

Top seed Keegan Smith(UCLA) and No. 4 seed Ryan Fishback(Virginia Tech) will play for the singles title at the M15 in Tallahassee after Smith defeated qualifier Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine) 6-3, 6-2 and Fishback beat No. 7 seed Maik Steiner(Western Michigan) of Germany 7-6(2), 6-3. Smith will be going for the sweep, after winning the doubles title Friday with Evan Bynoe.

At the M25 in Austin, former TCU All-American Lui Maxted of Great Britain will go for the sweep after the No. 5 seed defeated top seed Garrett Johns(Duke) 6-0, 6-2 in today's semifinals. He will face qualifier Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway, who defeated No. 4 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. Maxted has won two pro singles titles since graduating in May; it's the first pro final for Petrovic. 

Maxted won his six Pro Circuit doubles title today, with partner Pranav Kumar(Texas A&M, SMU). The top seeds beat No. 2 seeds Abraham Asaba(Monmouth, Virginia Tech) of Ghana and Alex Martinez(Oklahoma) of Spain 6-7(5), 6-5, 10-8 in the final.

The J300 in Zapopan Mexico concluded today, with No. 2 seed Stefan Haita of Romania defeating unseeded 15-year-old Vihaan Reddy 6-1, 6-4 for the boys title. 

No. 2 seed Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic won the girls title, beating No. 8 seed Maia Burcescu of Romania 6-4, 7-6(6) in the final.

Kovackova also won the doubles title, with sister Alena; the top seeds defeated fellow Czechs Tereza Hermanova and Sofie Hettlerova, the No. 4 seeds, 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

No. 7 seeds Jakub Kusy of the Czech Republic and Mustafa Ege Sik of Turkey won the boys doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Aaron Gabet and Daniel Jade of France 6-4, 2-6, 10-5 in the final.

Qualifying is underway for the ITF J500 in Merida Mexico next week; the qualifying draws have many open spots, and one win, in some instances, will be enough to qualify.