Junior Player Spotlight: Michael Zheng By Brian Coleman

JUNIOR PLAYER SPOTLIGHT N EW YORK TE N N IS MAGA Z I N E’S BY BRI A N COLE MAN

MICHAEL ZHENG

Towards the end of 2019, Michael Zheng headed north to Wayland, Mass. to compete in the USTA National Indoor Championships, one of the top junior circuit tournaments in the United States.

Zheng, a high school sophomore, had entered the event playing good tennis, and felt solid about his game.

“I was playing really well heading into the Indoor Championships. I had a decent run in Kalamazoo where I lost to the eventual finalist in three sets. So that gave me a lot of confidence,” recalls Zheng. “And I continued playing well that week. I was just extremely focused, was hitting clean and didn’t commit a lot of unforced errors.”

All of that added up to one of the best weeks of Zheng’s junior career where, as the seventh-seed, he won six consecutive matches, including a straight-sets win over the top-seed in the quarterfinals, culminating in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over Walker Oberg in the championship.

“Before each match I would take down notes of my opponent, and I was just really focused on winning that

event,” he said. “It gave me a lot of confidence afterwards; it showed me that I was at the same level as other nationally-ranked players. I think it also validates the hard work I was putting in going into the tournament, and that I’m doing the right things in my training. It was a great experience.”

The victory was the culmination of the dedication to training and work ethic Zheng has had throughout his young career as a tennis player. He began playing tennis when his father took him and his sister over to a local high school and fed balls to them. Soon after, they would try out and gain entry into the feeder program at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

“I played there for two years, it was a great program. And it really set the foundation for me as a tennis player,” said Zheng. “I had also played basketball and soccer growing up, but tennis took up most of my time, and I was always better at tennis than I was at other sports. I had good eye-hand coordination, and I think that was definitely more beneficial for tennis.”

Zheng’s training brought him to Centercourt Performance Tennis Academy a couple of years ago, a facility that is much closer to his New Jersey home, and a place that has helped his game develop over the last two years.

“I first moved to Centercourt when my coach, Adrian Contreras, went there and it’s been great. Everyone in the program is really good and it’s very competitive,” said Zheng. “We do a lot of point play, and everyone is trying to move up the ladder to the top court. That aspect, where everyone is aiming to beat the person ahead of them,

helps make everyone better.”

Helping to make him better was his participation in the Centercourt Men’s Professional Tennis Shootout, an event featuring touring professionals and $50,000 in prize money. Just a teenager, Zheng held his own in the tournament’s draw and reached the finals where he faced off against American Stefan Kozlov.

“I was really nervous,” Zheng said, recalling that final match. “I had watched Kozlov a lot when I was growing up and going to the US Open. So I was definitely nervous. But when I arrived, I had so much support, so many players from our program were watching on the next court over. They were rooting for me, and I really felt the love from Centercourt. Despite the loss it was such a great experience overall.”

His success over the last year has catapulted Zheng into one of the top players in the country, ranked eighth nationally in the Class of 2022 by TennisRecruiting.net. And like the rest of his peers in the nation and around the world, he will remain ranked there for the foreseeable future with no tournaments or events being played because of the coronavirus global pandemic.

Being forced to stay at home and unable to go to the gym or courts have forced athletes to get creative with their workouts and training regimens, and Zheng is no different.

“It’s been tough trying to stay fit; most of the time I go for runs around my neighborhood, and do some squats, push-ups and things like that in my house,” he said. “Centercourt has posted a lot of webinars online about mental training and that’s been really helpful. There have been mental coaches from around the world posting a lot of different tips, so I’ve been taking notes on that. Just doing what I can to maintain a sense of training.”

When the tournaments do return, Zheng will look to pick up where he left off and continue his winning ways. Despite being 15-years-old, Zheng has transitioned into playing in the 18s division in USTA Eastern tournaments, and is making the full transition into playing all of his national-level tournaments in the 18s division as well.

He has goals of playing Division I tennis and then he wants to try to play professional tennis. These are aspirations that he will pursue with the dedication and hard work that has brought him to this point.

“I just want to be the best that I can be,” he said. “If my best is being a top college player, that would be amazing. But if you work hard and push yourself harder than everyone else, then maybe you have a shot to go pro. I just want to see how far I can go.”

Brian Coleman is senior editor for New York Tennis Magazine. He may be reached by e-mail at BrianC@USPTennis.com.

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Now More Than Ever…Team First

By Ira Miller

At the end of our college practices and before each match at NJIT, I assemble the group in a circle, we put our hands in, and on three we roar: “Team First!”

Tennis is typically known as an individual sport, but most of my long-time involvement has been with the team or group aspect, from being a high school and college player, running camps for juniors, coaching Eastern Section Zonals, Maccabi Games coaching, and coaching college for over 25 years. At our first team meeting each fall, I talk about the beauty of sharing this sport as a team:

“Your great times will be that much better. Your down times will be easier to handle. During both you will have teammates to share it with.”

What exactly does Team First mean?

I see it as a guide for how to act. Whenever you’re with your team, whether it’s practice, a match, a team meal, before doing or saying something, have in mind what is best for the team. It’s not always

easy to put team first, and it can be especially difficult for freshmen, but the journey together is learning these lessons and becoming better teammates, which often leads to becoming better people. It’s always fascinating to see the progress players make from freshmen to senior year, from team member to team leader. It really is priceless.

They learn that if an administrator asks the team to complete a task and one person doesn’t get it done, it reflects poorly on the whole team, so get it done.

They learn that if they’re heading to practice and suddenly get an important text, they don’t stop to answer it because the team needs to start on time.

They learn that if they’re feeling sluggish during a live-ball drill, they have to step it up regardless because their teammate on the other side needs their best.

They learn that they can be down and out in a match with nothing working and if they were out there by themselves the match might be over. But not with teammates cheering them on, not with the whole dual match riding on their efforts. They dig deep and find levels of effort they never thought possible.

They learn that if they have a problem with a teammate they don’t talk trash about him or her to someone else on the

team because they risk group alienation and factions. They bite the bullet and hash it out directly with their teammate.

They learn that there is a greater good, a greater purpose beyond individual accomplishments and that team success is about as good as it gets.

They learn that they have teammates for life and many of them will be there in the same way after the four seasons as they were during those third-set battles or those late night talks after a rough patch with a significant other.

I remember coaching an Eastern Section Zonal 16s team and first meeting the players after we landed in St. Louis. Before our first match I asked them to design a team cheer. Together they came up with a great one, one executed each day with noise and vigor, bonding quickly even though we only had a few days together. After we won the gold, the first thing they did was their cheer.

I remember coaching the U.S. Junior Team at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Mexico City. I can’t say there has been a bigger tennis thrill than entering a stadium full of cheering people during the opening ceremonies knowing that “USA” was emblazoned on the backs of our warm-up suits.

I remember just this past February playing a home dual match that came down to the last flight, the last set to see which team won 4-3. The entire men’s and women’s tennis teams were watching our sixth singles player trying to close out the final set. He got down 0-4 and began experiencing severe leg cramps. I offered him advice, Gatorade and even the option to stop if the pain was too intense. He battled on, his movement hampered, making an incredible percentage of first serves, grinding balls deep and high down the middle, stepping in to go for it when he had the chance, pulling out the match 7-6 in the tiebreaker. He collapsed on the court, swarmed by his teammates and friends, the feeling of elation that much more intense, no less than it would have been if we had just won the conference championship.

So enjoy this gift that the group aspect of tennis provides, especially in these difficult days ahead, days that make us realize that our community, our workplace and our country are one big team. And once all this gets settled and we return to normal, I encourage juniors to play high school tennis and then college tennis, and suggest others to play USTA leagues. Everyone should take the time to partake in whatever options are available to you in order to share the joy, to be part of a greater good and to experience the ultimate intensity that comes with being Team First!

Ira Miller is the head men's tennis coach at NJIT and Director of CourtSense Tennis Training Center’s junior summer camp at Ramapo College. At three different universities, he has won a total of 17 Conference Championships and 16 Conference Coach of the Year awards. In 2012 he was selected as an ITA Regional Coach of the Year. Miller is in the Athletics Hall of Fame as a coach at both Drew and Fairleigh Dickinson Universities.

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