WACO, Texas (AP) — Georgia's Dasha Vidmanova and Columbia's Michael Zheng won NCAA singles tennis titles on Sunday.
Vidmanova, a 21-year-old senior from the Czech Republic, beat DJ Bennett of Auburn 6-3, 6-3 for the Bulldogs' first women's singles championship since 2010 and the fourth singles champion in program history.
Vidmanova is the only Bulldog in program history to win both the NCAA singles and doubles titles after winning the doubles with Aysegul Mert last season.
It was the second consecutive season Georgia had a women’s tennis player reach the title match after Anastasiia Lopata lost to Alexa Noel of Miami last year.
Bennett is the first player in Auburn’s program history to reach the finals in the event, besting Fani Chifchieva’s semifinalist finish in 2008 that was the previous best finish for a Tiger.
Zheng, a 20-year-old junior from Montville, New Jersey, beat Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to become the first Ivy League player to collect an NCAA men's singles crown since 1922.
The final between Zheng and Baris was the first men's NCAA tennis singles final between two Americans since 2017.
Zheng, the first men’s Ivy Leaguer to win the title since Yale's Lucien Williams over a century ago, is the first player to reach back-to-back finals on the men’s side since Steve Johnson of USC in 2011 and 2012.
TCU’s Pedro Vives Marcos and Lui Maxted earned the men’s doubles championship while Virginia’s Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard won the women’s doubles title.
Vives Marcos and Maxted beat Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay of Michigan 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 1-0 (10-2). The 10-point tiebreaker to determine the national champions featured five service breaks, including four by the Horned Frogs, who scored the final six points to seal their title.
Young and Kittay became the first doubles runners-up in Michigan men's tennis history.
Chervinsky and Collard beat UCLA's Olivia Center and Kate Fakih — both freshmen — 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5) in the final to win the first NCAA Doubles title in program history. The Cavaliers' duo won each of their five matches at the championships in a third-set 10-point super tiebreaker.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
The Associated Press
