\u201cI am happy and proud for Paul, it\u2019s such a big achievement to be a part of the NCAAs and to have the kind of week he\u2019s having,\u201d Lief Shiras\u00a0\u201981 wrote to The Daily Princetonian.<\/p>\n
In 1980, Shiras reached the semifinals before falling to USC\u2019s Robert Van\u2019t Hof. He has been a longtime commentator at Tennis Channel after a nine-year tennis career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super pumped to be in the Final Four,\u201d Inchauspe said to the ‘Prince’. \u201cI\u2019ve put in a lot of hard work recently in order to perform at this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inchauspe now faces Columbia\u2019s Michael Zheng, the defending NCAA champion and the No. 1 ranked singles player in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know [Inchauspe] wants more,\u201d Shiras wrote. \u201cThis is what we all play for, the chance to win \u2014 win for yourself, sure, but also the team, the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
The road to the Final Four wasn\u2019t easy for Inchauspe, who was four games away from losing in the first round of the tournament. Playing Arizona\u2019s Sasha Rozin in the Round of 64, Inchauspe dropped the first set 6\u20130 and was down 2\u20130 in the second set.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week, I\u2019ve had a lot of tough battles,\u201d Inchauspe said. \u201cWeeks like this show just how good all of our trainers and how well prepared we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite this, Inchauspe forced a tiebreaker and won the second set before ultimately winning the decisive third set 7\u20135. He did the same in the Round of 32, dropping the first set against UC Santa Barbara\u2019s Lucca Liu before battling back to win the next two.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first two matches were tough for me, I didn\u2019t play my best tennis, but I also just kept believing that I could win and I kept fighting till the last point,\u201d Inchauspe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After qualifying for the Sweet 16, Inchauspe earned ITA All-American honors for the second straight season. Last year, the road for Inchauspe ended in this round following a defeat to Florida State\u2019s Corey Craig. This year, he was determined to make it even further.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important part of his development has been how he approaches each day in a professional manner and with purpose,\u201d Head Coach Billy Pate wrote to the ‘Prince’. \u201cHe\u2019s highly ritualized with his preparation and takes nothing for granted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the Round of 16, he made quick work of Georgia\u2019s William Jansen to qualify for the quarterfinals. In doing so, he earned his spot in the 2026\u201327 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Next Gen Accelerator Program. The program is a pathway created by the ATP \u2014 the organization that runs the men\u2019s professional tennis tour around the world \u2014 to give elite NCAA Division I tennis players direct access to professional tournaments after college.<\/p>\n \u201cQualifying for the Next Gen Accelerator Program is huge,\u201d Inchauspe said. \u201cThe ultimate goal is to play pro once I graduate from Princeton. Having access to those challenger level tournaments is great and I\u2019m super excited to play those starting this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday morning, Inchauspe went down once again, losing the first set to Pow 6\u20134. Pow was a member of Wake Forest\u2019s squad that won<\/a> the 2025 NCAA DI men\u2019s tennis team championship in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI knew about [Pow] already,\u201d Inchauspe said. \u201cI was expecting a very tough battle. I felt stronger physically in the third set which allowed me to play better and to win that match.\u201d<\/p>\n As he\u2019s done all week, Inchauspe bounced back with a 6\u20134 win of his own in the second set to force the winner take all third set. In the third set, Inchauspe was quick to take care of business, going up 5\u20131 and ultimately winning 6\u20132.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAssociate Head Coach Damian Hume has done an incredible job with him on court, and particularly this week, helping him fight through each round,\u201d Pate wrote. \u201cPaul wasn\u2019t as sharp the first two rounds, but has settled in and he was playing to his standard today in the third set.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The biggest test of the season awaits the French native on Saturday. Inchauspe will play Zheng, who has made the NCAA title game in the last two seasons, winning in 2024 to become the first NCAA singles champion from Columbia since 1906.<\/p>\n \u201cHis results recently have been very impressive,\u201d Inchauspe said of Zheng. \u201cI\u2019m going to need my best tennis, but I\u2019ll compete as I\u2019ve been doing and as hard as I can, try to find solutions and adapt during the match.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great for Ivy League tennis. It\u2019s not something that happens often,\u201d Inchauspe added<\/p>\n Zheng has also begun to establish himself on the professional circuit, reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking inside the top 200 while still in college. Inchauspe and Zheng have shared the court before \u2014 including an unfinished doubles match<\/a> meeting in the spring and a Round of 32 match<\/a> at the 2022 French Open Juniors \u2014 but Saturday will be their first head-to-head singles showdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAgainst [Zheng], Paul will clearly need to play well, minimizing mistakes, while dictating play and using his weapons,\u201d Pate wrote to the ‘Prince’. \u201cBoth players have slightly different styles so it will be who can play their strengths the best.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf Paul executes his offense he\u2019s tough to beat. Michael is incredibly solid and playing with a lot of confidence, so we expect a high quality match from both sides.\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n The semifinal is scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. at the USTA National Campus in Orlando and will be streamed on ESPN+.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe in myself, I\u2019m going to back myself,\u201d Inchauspe said.<\/p>\n Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor, senior Sports writer, and education director for the \u2018Prince.\u2019 He is from Glendale, Calif. and typically covers breaking news and profiles. He can be reached at hy5161[at]princeton.edu.<\/p>\n Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1980. That was the last time the Tigers had an individual in the NCAA men\u2019s tennis singles championship.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-298684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Subscribe\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/subscribe-mail.png\")
\n Get the best of the \u2018Prince\u2019 delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n