University of Georgia Athletics
‘I’m Glad That I’m Here’
December 08, 2022 | Women's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Anastasiia Lopata is many things: A very talented freshman on the Georgia women's tennis team; a native of Kiev, Ukraine, which means her home country has been under attack by Russian forces since February; and she is a teenager who despite the above is still very much into the things teenagers are into.
Back in September, associate head coach Drake Bernstein took Lopata, who goes by "Nastya," to New York to play in the U.S. Open junior girls tournament, It wasn't the trip to one of the great cities of the world that most captivated her; nor was it the chance to play in a huge tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center. No, it was Harry Styles.
The popular English singer and actor was doing 15 shows in Madison Square Garden.
"It was about her third or fourth week in school here, and all she would talk about — not, we're getting ready to play the U.S. Open, or, this is awesome," Bernstein said. "It was, Harry Styles is here for a concert! Harry Styles is here.
"And I'd be like, 'OK, but you know we're going to play the U.S. Open, right?' And she goes, 'Yes, but maybe we could go to the Harry Styles merch tent?'"
For Lopata and her countrymen and women, time can currently be measured by before Feb. 24, when Russian forces invaded their country, and after Feb. 24. That war was coming seemed a certainty, it was just a matter of when.
"Of course it's sad that the war's happening and I'm not happy about it, and I don't like what Russia is doing," she said.
Lopata wasn't home in Kiev — it's called Kyiv in Ukranian — when the Russians invaded. She was playing in a tournament in Lithuania, without either of her parents or her coach. Her doubles partner in the event was an Italian coached by a Ukranian, who trained at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain.
"When it all started, the flights all were canceled and I couldn't come back there (home)," Lopata said. "I was without a coach and without my parents, so I went alone to Lithuania. This coach helped me and she took me to Spain."
At Nadal's academy, Lopata found a safe space to call home, where she could train when she wasn't on the road playing tournaments in Europe. She was very appreciative that the academy opened its doors to her, and it was while she was there that she connected with Bernstein.
Lopata had signed with another school, but when that situation changed and she was released from her letter-of-intent, Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace and Bernstein were immediately interested.
"It kind of was a situation where it felt into our lap, somewhat at the last minute," Wallace said. "It wasn't like we'd been recruiting her for three years or something. That whole process went really fast, and the decision for her to come here happened pretty quickly.
"It wasn't your normal recruiting situation, but Drake did a great job of talking with her and getting her on board to coming here."
Recruiting someone who is from a country currently at war isn't something that Bernstein had done before. He tried to be sensitive to her situation while also highlighting everything Georgia had to offer.
"That definitely is something you have on your mind when you're talking to her," he said. "I think she was really mature throughout the whole recruiting process; she obviously had a lot going on."
That maturity showed itself in different ways. After a few months, the war, sadly, becomes part of everyday life. When Lopata made her official visit to Georgia, Bernstein met her at the Atlanta airport and they talked on the drive back to Athens.
"I remember asking her, 'Nastya, how are things back home now? How's your family doing? How are things?" Bernstein said. "She said, 'Oh, it's good, it's almost back to normal. You still hear the missiles at night, but it's mostly normal.'
"I just remember thinking, Man, that's far from normal."
Georgia's coaches largely follow Lopata's lead when it comes to the war. They follow the news and they're always there to support her, but they also want to make sure she's making the most of her UGA experience.
"You never know what's going on beneath the surface, but I think she's been a rock star about it," Bernstein said, adding, "I know she's handling it much better than I would if I were in her shoes."
Lopata had been to the U.S. before coming to Georgia, having played in a couple of major junior events in Florida. Her first UGA football game, that was something else.
"It was a special experience because I've never been to anything like that before," she said. "The first time we went, it was very hot weather and it was tiring. The second time, we went in Jacksonville, the Georgia and Florida game, and I really liked it.
"In the first game, I didn't understand much of what's happening. You have to learn the rules."
Lopata has also had to learn to be a part of a team for the first time. Junior tennis is largely a solo affair, so suddenly having a large group of teammates was something new.
And what a menagerie it is. Lopata is one of seven international Bulldogs on the team, with players from the Czech Republic (Dasha Vidmanova), Poland (Ania Hertel) and Germany (Alexandra Vecic), plus Ecuador (Mell Reasco), Uruguay (Guillermina Grant) and Thailand (Mai Nirundorn). They're all far from home, having come together as Bulldogs alongside their American teammates: Meg Kowalski, Lea Ma and Haley Gaudette,
"I look at her the same way I look at other people on the team," Wallace said of Lopata. "Everybody has a story and everybody's got situations going on outside of tennis, although her's is super unique. But I've never been a coach that felt like I need to do this with this because of this, and do that with that one because of that.
"I think, Hey, you're on a team, you've come here, committed to a school, and what a great school it is and what a great opportunity it is for her. I think to a certain extent, we do her a disservice if we try to treat her any different from anyone else on the team."
On Wednesday, Time magazine announced Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and "the spirit of Ukraine" as its Person of the Year for 2022. During an interview last month, Lopata was asked about the pride she feels in seeing how her country has fought and more than held its own against Russia's forces.
"I'm very proud because our soldiers, they defend our lands. And recently they freed more territories," she said.
And some of those soldiers are former pro tennis players. One of Ukraine's top players over the past 20 years was Sergiy Stakhovsky, who won eight ATP Tour singles and doubles titles. The 36-year-old Stakhovsky retired this year to join the Ukrainian army and fight the Russian invasion. Another former ATP pro from Ukraine, Alex Dolgopolov, who was ranked as high as No. 13 in the world, is also fighting for his home country.
Things are "better" back home, Lopata said, but winter is coming. The serious cold is on the way and in cities, there's no guarantee of heat and electricity. "It's difficult to live in cities right now," she said.
Lopata will FaceTime with her mom just about every day, something that no doubt does them both a world of good.
"She is happy for me, but she's a little sad, I think, that she is there alone," Lopata said. "But she's happy for me, and she likes that I'm here."
As for the trip to New York for the U.S. Open juniors, Lopata won her first match before falling in the second round. And, perhaps most importantly, she and Bernstein did hit the Harry Styles merch tent.
"We stood in line for 45 minutes for her to get a t-shirt and a handbag, but she was pretty fired up about that," he said with a big laugh. "She's a huge Harry Styles fan — huge, huge."
She's also both a typical and an atypical college freshman, in a new place and experiencing plenty of new and interesting things.
"I'm enjoying it a lot," Lopata said of her first semester of college. "It's all very interesting, also, and I'm glad that I'm here."
Now if only Harry Styles would play the Georgia Theatre.
Staff Writer
Anastasiia Lopata is many things: A very talented freshman on the Georgia women's tennis team; a native of Kiev, Ukraine, which means her home country has been under attack by Russian forces since February; and she is a teenager who despite the above is still very much into the things teenagers are into.
Back in September, associate head coach Drake Bernstein took Lopata, who goes by "Nastya," to New York to play in the U.S. Open junior girls tournament, It wasn't the trip to one of the great cities of the world that most captivated her; nor was it the chance to play in a huge tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center. No, it was Harry Styles.
The popular English singer and actor was doing 15 shows in Madison Square Garden.
"It was about her third or fourth week in school here, and all she would talk about — not, we're getting ready to play the U.S. Open, or, this is awesome," Bernstein said. "It was, Harry Styles is here for a concert! Harry Styles is here.
"And I'd be like, 'OK, but you know we're going to play the U.S. Open, right?' And she goes, 'Yes, but maybe we could go to the Harry Styles merch tent?'"
For Lopata and her countrymen and women, time can currently be measured by before Feb. 24, when Russian forces invaded their country, and after Feb. 24. That war was coming seemed a certainty, it was just a matter of when.
"Of course it's sad that the war's happening and I'm not happy about it, and I don't like what Russia is doing," she said.
Lopata wasn't home in Kiev — it's called Kyiv in Ukranian — when the Russians invaded. She was playing in a tournament in Lithuania, without either of her parents or her coach. Her doubles partner in the event was an Italian coached by a Ukranian, who trained at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain.
"When it all started, the flights all were canceled and I couldn't come back there (home)," Lopata said. "I was without a coach and without my parents, so I went alone to Lithuania. This coach helped me and she took me to Spain."
At Nadal's academy, Lopata found a safe space to call home, where she could train when she wasn't on the road playing tournaments in Europe. She was very appreciative that the academy opened its doors to her, and it was while she was there that she connected with Bernstein.
Lopata had signed with another school, but when that situation changed and she was released from her letter-of-intent, Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace and Bernstein were immediately interested.
"It kind of was a situation where it felt into our lap, somewhat at the last minute," Wallace said. "It wasn't like we'd been recruiting her for three years or something. That whole process went really fast, and the decision for her to come here happened pretty quickly.
"It wasn't your normal recruiting situation, but Drake did a great job of talking with her and getting her on board to coming here."
Recruiting someone who is from a country currently at war isn't something that Bernstein had done before. He tried to be sensitive to her situation while also highlighting everything Georgia had to offer.
"That definitely is something you have on your mind when you're talking to her," he said. "I think she was really mature throughout the whole recruiting process; she obviously had a lot going on."
That maturity showed itself in different ways. After a few months, the war, sadly, becomes part of everyday life. When Lopata made her official visit to Georgia, Bernstein met her at the Atlanta airport and they talked on the drive back to Athens.
"I remember asking her, 'Nastya, how are things back home now? How's your family doing? How are things?" Bernstein said. "She said, 'Oh, it's good, it's almost back to normal. You still hear the missiles at night, but it's mostly normal.'
"I just remember thinking, Man, that's far from normal."
Georgia's coaches largely follow Lopata's lead when it comes to the war. They follow the news and they're always there to support her, but they also want to make sure she's making the most of her UGA experience.
"You never know what's going on beneath the surface, but I think she's been a rock star about it," Bernstein said, adding, "I know she's handling it much better than I would if I were in her shoes."
Lopata had been to the U.S. before coming to Georgia, having played in a couple of major junior events in Florida. Her first UGA football game, that was something else.
"It was a special experience because I've never been to anything like that before," she said. "The first time we went, it was very hot weather and it was tiring. The second time, we went in Jacksonville, the Georgia and Florida game, and I really liked it.
"In the first game, I didn't understand much of what's happening. You have to learn the rules."
Lopata has also had to learn to be a part of a team for the first time. Junior tennis is largely a solo affair, so suddenly having a large group of teammates was something new.
And what a menagerie it is. Lopata is one of seven international Bulldogs on the team, with players from the Czech Republic (Dasha Vidmanova), Poland (Ania Hertel) and Germany (Alexandra Vecic), plus Ecuador (Mell Reasco), Uruguay (Guillermina Grant) and Thailand (Mai Nirundorn). They're all far from home, having come together as Bulldogs alongside their American teammates: Meg Kowalski, Lea Ma and Haley Gaudette,
"I look at her the same way I look at other people on the team," Wallace said of Lopata. "Everybody has a story and everybody's got situations going on outside of tennis, although her's is super unique. But I've never been a coach that felt like I need to do this with this because of this, and do that with that one because of that.
"I think, Hey, you're on a team, you've come here, committed to a school, and what a great school it is and what a great opportunity it is for her. I think to a certain extent, we do her a disservice if we try to treat her any different from anyone else on the team."
On Wednesday, Time magazine announced Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and "the spirit of Ukraine" as its Person of the Year for 2022. During an interview last month, Lopata was asked about the pride she feels in seeing how her country has fought and more than held its own against Russia's forces.
"I'm very proud because our soldiers, they defend our lands. And recently they freed more territories," she said.
And some of those soldiers are former pro tennis players. One of Ukraine's top players over the past 20 years was Sergiy Stakhovsky, who won eight ATP Tour singles and doubles titles. The 36-year-old Stakhovsky retired this year to join the Ukrainian army and fight the Russian invasion. Another former ATP pro from Ukraine, Alex Dolgopolov, who was ranked as high as No. 13 in the world, is also fighting for his home country.
Things are "better" back home, Lopata said, but winter is coming. The serious cold is on the way and in cities, there's no guarantee of heat and electricity. "It's difficult to live in cities right now," she said.
Lopata will FaceTime with her mom just about every day, something that no doubt does them both a world of good.
"She is happy for me, but she's a little sad, I think, that she is there alone," Lopata said. "But she's happy for me, and she likes that I'm here."
As for the trip to New York for the U.S. Open juniors, Lopata won her first match before falling in the second round. And, perhaps most importantly, she and Bernstein did hit the Harry Styles merch tent.
"We stood in line for 45 minutes for her to get a t-shirt and a handbag, but she was pretty fired up about that," he said with a big laugh. "She's a huge Harry Styles fan — huge, huge."
She's also both a typical and an atypical college freshman, in a new place and experiencing plenty of new and interesting things.
"I'm enjoying it a lot," Lopata said of her first semester of college. "It's all very interesting, also, and I'm glad that I'm here."
Now if only Harry Styles would play the Georgia Theatre.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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