Columbia’s Zheng goes back-to-back, UNC’s Brantmeier claims women’s singles title at NCAA Division I championships; Stoiana wins second consecutive W50; USTA Pro Circuit titles for Smith, Maxted and Pace

Zheng didn’t play particularly well in the first set, but Svajda also didn’t compete at the level he showed in the three previous matches, which no doubt accounted for nervous mistakes from both. Five of the ten games were decided by decisive points, and although Zheng won only two, he got the most important one: a set point at 5-4.

Svajda seemed more comfortable in the second set, winning a key deciding point at 3-1 to take control of the set. Zheng admitted he was willing to let go of that set to make a fresh start in the third set.

“I thought he hit his forehand really well today,” the 21-year-old from New Jersey told Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets. “After that deuce point, when I missed that midfield forehand to get the break back for the second time, I thought, you know, maybe I’ll just give him the second set, try to refocus and make more first serves in the third.”

Zheng took a bathroom break and his experience, making his third consecutive appearance in the final, showed in the opening match. He held on to love after losing all three of his service games in the second set and began to hold serve more easily. Svajda, on the other hand, needed decisive points in his first two service games to keep himself in the match. But his net play, so solid earlier, let him down with a missed volley at 30-40, giving Zheng the break with a 4-2 lead. That was all Zheng needed, and he held on in his next two service games to win his 12th straight match in NCAA singles competition.

Zheng is the first player since USC’s Stevie Johnson to win consecutive titles, and is the ninth man to do so since the NCAA began sponsoring the individual intercollegiate championships in 1938. He now holds the modern men’s record (since 1977) for most NCAA singles victories with 19.

North Carolina’s Reese Brantmeier also won her second NCAA title, with the 21-year-old Wisconsin senior adding a singles title to the team title she earned as a freshman in 2023 with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cal’s Berta Passola Folch.

Brantmeier, a 9-16 seed, won every first set she played this week, but in four of her previous five matches she dropped the second set. Today’s final started in similar fashion, but it was Passola Folch, who seemed more confident in her service games, to start, with Brantmeier having to save eight break points to keep pace.

“She came up and took it to me in those return games,” Brantmeier told Gruskin. “I think my percentage on the first serve was definitely slipping a little bit, so she got a lot of looks on the second serve and really put pressure on me. I just tried to approach it point by point; when you’re down 0-40 on your serve several times, and you start counting those break points, it’s not ideal. Winning one point on my serve feels more manageable than having to rattle off three or four in a row.”

After getting the first break to lead 4-3, Brantmeier pulled herself out of one of those 0-40 holes and then broke at love to close the set with eight straight points.

The second set was close at 3-3, but Passola Folch couldn’t convert the two break points she had and finished 0-10 in that department, with Brantmeier taking the final three games to win the Tar Heels’ second NCAA women’s singles title.

After all her injuries and the ongoing lawsuit she filed against the NCAA, Brantmeier has had many setbacks and distractions in her career at North Carolina, but this week she was able to bring herself back from the brink and play her best when it mattered most. Trailing 5-2 in the final set of the first round against Bridget Stammel of Vanderbilt, Brantmeier is now the 2025 NCAA women’s singles champion, a feat she rates just shy of her team title.

“This is so incredibly meaningful to me,” Brantmeier said. “Obviously there’s a recency bias, but this is the case. I think the team title certainly takes the cake, but doing that here in singles brings it full circle. It’s just a credit to the great people I get to surround myself with every day, all credit to Carolina and the great staff and my team.”

The doubles titles both went to unseeded teams, with Virginia’s Dylan Dietrich and Mans Dahlberg defeating Ohio State’s Nikita Filin and Brandon Carpico 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the men’s final.

Dietrich and Dahlberg knocked out top seeds Benito Sanchez Martinez and Petar Jovanovic of Mississippi State in the second round and had no disappointment. They lost just one set en route to the University of Virginia’s fourth NCAA men’s doubles title.

The North Carolina State team of Victoria Osuigwe and Gabriella Broadfoot won the Wolfpack’s second NCAA women’s doubles title, defeating No. 4 seeds Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster of Vanderbilt 7-5, 6-4.

Mohr and Webster led 3-1 in the second set, but freshman Osuigwe and junior Broadfoot claimed five of the next six games to clinch the title.

After winning the M50 in Austin last week, the 22-year-old from Connecticut won her third ITF Women’s Pro Circuit title last night in a three-hour battle with LSU sophomore Kayla Cross of Canada. Stoiana, the No. 6 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Cross 7-6(2), 6-7(6), 6-2, her second win over Cross this month.

The 50 points move Stoiana to a career high of 228 and close to the likely cutoff for qualifying for the 2026 Australian Open, which will be announced next month.

Top seeds Anna Roguers (NC State) and Dalayna Hewitt won the doubles title, defeating Canada’s Ariana Arseneault (Georgia, Auburn) and Raphaelle Lacasse (Kansas, Nebraska) 6-3, 6-0 in the final.

Keegan Smith added the singles title to the doubles title he won Friday in Tallahassee, beating top seed and former UCLA All-American No. 4 seed Ryan Fishback (Virginia Tech) 6-3, 6-3.

Great Britain’s Lui Maxted, who like Smith is a former NCAA doubles champion, added a singles title to his doubles title in Austin, with Andreja Petrovic (North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) winning 6-2, 6-3 in the final. The recent TCU graduate has now won three singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF Men’s Pro Circuit since graduating this spring.