By Jerry Ratcliffe
The story of Jangjun Kim is one that Virginia tennis coach Andres Pedroso said he will be telling for a long time.
Kim is a sophomore from Seoul, South Korea, and is an effective starter for the fourth-seeded Cavaliers, owning a 23-9 singles record and 14-6 mark in doubles heading into the NCAA’s Final Eight in Athens, Ga. The Korean holds down the No. 3 singles spot for UVA
On Friday, Kim played a significant role in punching the Cavaliers’ ticket to Athens.
Virginia led visiting South Carolina, 3-1, at the Boar’s Head courts, with three singles matches still up in the air. UVA’s Dylan Dietrich had just evened up his match after two sets and was starting the third. Måns Dahlberg was leading 3-1 in his third set.
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Kim had dropped his first set to the Gamecocks’ Sean Daryabeigi, 5-7, and bounced back to take the second set, 6-2. The third set was a war, hotly contested, with Kim eking out game after game to a 5-2 lead as his match began to draw a huge interest from the crowd.
“When he has the crowd behind him like that, and he’s riding that momentum, there are not too many guys in college tennis who are better than him,” Pedroso said.
Then again, not too many guys in college tennis have endured the challenges Kim had by coming to Virginia.
With lots of easier options, Kim chose the hard path when Pedroso was brutally honest with him during the recruiting process.
“I literally looked him in the eye and said, ‘This is going to be extremely hard, so if you want something easy, don’t come here. Go somewhere else.’” Pedroso revealed about his conversation with Kim.
Kim arrived in Charlottesville, speaking very little English. Pedroso said that admissions trusted him and helped him get Kim accepted.
“He’s getting incredible grades now … he’s an academic success story, he’s a tennis success story, and he’s turning into a man,” Pedroso said. “Some other schools were telling him it was going to be easy and I told him it was going to be hard, really hard, but it’s going to change your life. And he trusted me, came here, worked and worked, and now he’s doing great.”
Kim finished off his opponent, closing him out at 6-2 to clinch the match as the Boar’s Head gallery celebrated another Round of 16 triumph.
During the latter stages of that Court 3 match, Pedroso didn’t say a lot to Kim, but just encouraged him to keep battling.
“I said to him, ‘When you compete like this, I don’t have to coach you,’” Pedroso said. “I don’t have to talk tennis. You compete like this and you play your game, and I don’t have to coach you.”
Kim and his Cavalier teammates will continue their postseason run on Thursday night at approximately 7 p.m. in Athens against No. 5 seed Mississippi State in the NCAA Quarterfinal round.
If you want even more award-winning coverage on the UVA athletics department, including its nationally-ranked football and basketball programs, be sure to subscribe to “Cavalier Exclusive” to follow all of Virginia Sports Hall Of Famer Jerry “Hootie” Ratcliffe’s analysis and content. It’s the best in the business for Wahoo Fans!
