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Juan Pablo Varillas (No. 88 in the ATP ranking) regained confidence in his best tennis and qualified for the quarterfinals of the Sanremo Challenger by defeating Italian Andrea Pellegrino (No. 184). The Peruvian showed improvement after his participation in the Miami Masters 1000, where - despite showing a good game - he was eliminated prematurely.
The top-ranked player had one of the highlights of his career weeks ago when he reached his first ATP level semifinals in Buenos Aires, defeating top-notch opponents like Dominic Thiem and Lorenzo Musetti along the way.
This week, for the first time since January, Varillas returned to the Challenger Tour, a circuit where he has achieved his best results: five titles, the last of them in San Leopoldo 2022, and four finals (in Campinas during the previous season).
Right from the start, the 27-year-old tennis player cruised to a straight-sets victory over Federico Arnaboldi. Then, it was the turn of another Italian: Andrea Pellegrino, with whom he had to battle a bit more.
It was tough, but he achieved another victory for Peru
Juan Pablo needed an hour and 47 minutes to overcome local player Pellegrino. With the good start he had in the match, the Peruvian was able to take the first set with a break of serve.
However, in the second set, the local player showed a better performance and won convincingly with a 6-1 score over the Peruvian. But Varillas recovered in the third set and won by 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Now, in order to reach the final, he will face another local player: Andrea Vavassori (No. 202). It is worth noting that in their head-to-head matchups, the Italian has a 2-1 advantage over the Peruvian, with Juan Pablo's most recent win being in the first round of the Gstaad qualifying (Switzerland) in 2022 by 6-4 and 7-6(3).
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