Tim Kopinski enters his fourth season as an assistant coach for the Fighting Illini men's tennis program heading into the 2025-26 season. Kopinski's hire was announced by head coach Brad Dancer on June 22, 2022. 

In his first season, during the 2022-23 campaign, Kopinski helped the Illini to two upset wins over ranked opponents -- No. 13 Georgia and No. 9 Wake Forest. He also helped the Illini to a season-high No. 16 in the ITA National Rankings. 

In his second season on staff in 2024, Kopinski helped lead Illinois to four ranked wins: No. 8 Duke, No. 14 Baylor, and North Carolina twice, once when the Tar Heels were ranked No. 16 and again when they were ranked No. 17. 

Most recently, Kopinski guided the 2025 Fighting Illini squad to a 15-12 overall record and a 7-6 mark in Big Ten play. Junior Kenta Miyoshi earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors, climbed to a career-high No. 10 ITA singles ranking, and secured ITA Singles All-American status under Kopinski's guidance.

Kopinski spent the 2021-22 season at Charlotte, where he served as the men's tennis team's assistant coach. The 49ers went 17-7 in Kopinski's lone season in Charlotte, and he helped the team record a 17-7 record. Kopinski also coached Conference USA Newcomer of the Year and C-USA First Team selection Thomas Brown and Outstanding Singles Player of the Championship Stefanos Savva.

Before his time at Charlotte, Kopinski had numerous coaching stints at the collegiate and professional level, including a volunteer coach position at Illinois in 2015-16, and two years traveling on the ATP Tour coaching Aussie pro Aleksandar Vukic.

During his time playing for the Fighting Illini, Kopinski led the team with 22 doubles wins, tied for second with 25 singles wins, and helped the team to a Big Ten championship in his freshman campaign.

In his sophomore year, Kopinski had the second-most wins and a 22-18 overall record. He was named Big Ten Athlete of the Week and earned Academic All-Big Ten and ITA Scholar Athlete honors.

The following season, Kopinski went 8-1 in singles play, finished the year ranked sixth nationally in doubles with his partner Ross Guignon, and posted the second-most singles wins on the team with a 33-12 record. He also was awarded All-American, First-Team All-Big Ten, and Big Ten Tennis Athlete of the Week, and he was named the Most Outstanding Player at the OFCC Invitational.

In his final year, Kopinski and his doubles partner ranked as high as No. 2 nationally and were the 2015 ITA National Indoor Championships doubles runner-ups. He also went undefeated in conference singles play and tied for most conference wins on the team while also collecting a 15-2 overall record. He finished his college career ranking 59th nationally in singles.

Kopinski also reached the Round of 16 in the singles draw at the ITA All-American Championships, was awarded Midwest ITA Senior Player of the Year, was a Midwest ITA/Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sportsmanship & Leadership Award winner, and was named First Team All-Big Ten.