The match is over, and yet one court is still playing. Everyone is watching Court 3, where graduate student James Hopper is fighting in a winner-takes-all tiebreak. He has survived seven match points, the score now 13-12.
His opponent fires his serve, and Hopper lunges to his right to send it back. Another tough shot comes his way and again he lunges, this time to his backhand, and fires a laser down the line.
His opponent does not reach it, Hopper turns to his team and shouts — that combination of triumph and relief only found after a drawn-out tiebreak — and walks to the net to shake his opponent’s hand.
You might not realize it — Hopper celebrates all his points with a similar intensity — but that tiebreak victory marked the 100th singles win of his college career.
Hopper, now in his sixth year of college tennis and at his second school, has never been Virginia’s star player, at least not in singles. His name comes up on occasion, after a big win or milestone, but it is rarely his picture on the game story.
And that is just the way these stories get told. When you talk about dynasties in sports, you often find yourself recounting the same narratives.
You talk about the stars, the captains, the prodigies, the coaches. You talk about the big wins, the hardships along the way, the moments you held your breath.
Only when you have exhausted yourself with those, do you talk about the unsung heroes. The culture guys, the workhorses, the players who, when push came to shove, rose to the occasion and left it all on the court.
When you talk about the dynasty that is Virginia men’s tennis, you do the same. Talented stars now making waves in the professional world, Coach Andres Pedroso and his famous culture, 50 consecutive regular-season conference wins, back-to-back national championships.
Then, only then, do you talk about James Hopper.
Ask any of Hopper’s teammates or coaches about him, and you will hear nothing but praise. Pedroso will say that Hopper is the “epitome” of what the team’s culture of grit and competitiveness is about. His doubles partner, freshman Keegan Rice, will say that he is a great teammate and leader, a guy who never fails to remind the team what it means to be a Cavalier.
Dig a little deeper, and you will hear about how an unheralded, late-blooming high school recruit out of New Jersey, who did not even make varsity on his first attempt, went to Division III Case Western Reserve and immediately thrived, going 31-2 in doubles and 21-4 in singles as a freshman and being named an All-American for both.
To Case Western Reserve Coach Todd Wojtkowski, Hopper’s success at Virginia is unsurprising. After all, Hopper is a stubborn competitor, Wojtkowski says. Yes, the two butted heads on more than one occasion, but few players comport themselves with the same level of maturity on and off the court.
“He could have had an attitude or an ego and been like, ‘I'm the best player in D-III, I'm a stud freshman, I'm this, I'm that,’” Wojtkowski said. “But he always listened, and he always admitted when he might be wrong, and was just so willing to be a sponge and listen and learn and make himself better.”
Hopper looks back at his time as a Spartan and remembers the relationships he developed fondly. He and his teammates would drive for half an hour to their 6:30 a.m. practices, where they would enthusiastically compete against each other six days a week. Wojtkowski helped him as an advocate and mentor during that time. And after four years, eight All-Americans and two national championships, Wojtkowski allowed him to transfer to the reigning national champions. Hopper still had two years of eligibility.
Joining Virginia’s star-studded roster, Hopper carved out his role. He played singles here and there but found success on the doubles court, going 8-2 with partner Iñaki Montes de la Torre and adding Division I All-American to his extensive resume.
But tennis is an endurance sport. As the season gets on, people get hurt. That is part of the game, Hopper says — everyone is dealing with something in the later days of the season, even him.
As the 2023-24 season trudged along and Virginia entered the postseason, those injuries began to pile up. Montes was playing through a hamstring injury, another player had a torn abdomen. Days before the team’s matchup against Wake Forest in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, one more, senior Chris Rodesch, came down with an illness.
Having not played singles for over a month, Hopper then found himself thrust into the lineup. He was ready — he had spent all season preparing for that opportunity. But like everyone else, he had his own things to worry about, a cyst and a partially torn ligament in his dominant wrist.
“I was always right on the verge competing for those last couple of spots,” Hopper said. “I'd been pushing myself throughout the whole season and semester to be right there and be ready [so that], if the time came that my name needed to be called, I'd be ready.”
Though Virginia lost that match, and its season ended, Hopper held his own on the sport’s biggest stage. He then, however, got surgery over the summer and hardly played in the fall due to rehab. Having seen many of his teammates end their college careers on terms other than their own, Hopper said he was motivated to end his own career without regrets and put in all of the work necessary for a successful return.
That return took time. He played one singles match in early November but then none until Virginia’s dual match opener on the road against No. 15 South Carolina Jan. 16. Hopper started slowly on Court 5, losing the first set 6-2. The opponent then got off to a strong start — Hopper might add a little lucky — in set two, leading 5-0. With the team leading 2-1 at the time, Hopper closed out a three-set comeback victory, giving Virginia a comfortable lead.
“I just started going point by point,” Hopper said. “Really dialing in, focusing on staying out there as long as it takes. And then I started to get some points going my way. And then the other guy maybe lost a little bit of focus — maybe not a ton — and then as soon as I get one game, two games on the board, I can see his head’s dropping… And then for me it’s like, okay, the match just started.”
Those that have been around him say that that is just who he is.
“If you've been around him long enough,” Wojtkowski said, “he just has this gear where it's like, ‘All right, that's it. I'm not letting you have this.’”
Hopper said he spent his entire rehab process getting into even better shape, which he said allows him to do more of what he does best — turn every match, even against some of the best players in the country, into a war of attrition. It is common for Hopper’s teammates to be wrapping up their second, sometimes even third sets, while he has yet to wrap up his first.
“We can play a 35 ball rally,” Hopper said. “Even if I lose the point, I know by hour two, two and a half, if [my opponent is] still standing on the court, I’m still going to be ready to go for 30, 35 balls. Not every guy is able to do that.”
One, two, three years from now, that is how Hopper wants to be remembered. It is not the nine All-Americans, the multiple Division III national championships, the 100 singles wins or the countless more in doubles. Instead, it is the simple things.
He wants to be remembered as a competitor, someone who rose to the occasion no matter the situation. Someone who fought through the pain for his team, who worked his way back from an injury just to have the chance to leave everything out there.
“In my last year I’ve sacrificed a lot of things to leave it all out there,” Hopper said. “I think that’s definitely something I want [people] to look back on. Like, ‘Wow, this guy really left it all out on the court.’”
When you talk about the dynasty that is Virginia tennis, of course you will talk about the stars. But you cannot tell the story of the near decade of success without talking about the program’s culture.
You will talk about the idea of playing without regrets, of firing up your teammates, of making opponents work for every single point, of sticking through the hardships and putting in the work.
You might not know it yet, but when you talk about that culture, you will already be talking about James Hopper.
Read More
Everything is bigger in Texas — except for lacrosse
By Sam Chun | 7 hours agoVirginia men's lacrosse's five Texas natives never expected to play a college game in their home state.
No. 14 women’s lacrosse defeats Richmond, remain undefeated on the road
By Lauren Halak | 10 hours agoAfter two early-season losses, Virginia is headed in the right direction.
No. 9 men’s golf holds steady for fourth-place finish at Southern Highlands Collegiate
By Ben McNiff | 20 hours agoVirginia showed improvement after a rocky start to the season a couple weeks ago.
