After his best sports year, Juan Pablo Varillas will seek qualification to the main draw of the Australian Open this Wednesday, January 11 at 10:15 p.m. His opponent is the Japanese Yosuke Watanuki (No. 138) and he will have the objective of competing in the first Grand Slam of 2023. This is the first time that the compatriot reaches this stage, surpassing his performances in 2020 and 2022, in which he reached the second round of the qualifiers.
Varillas started this journey facing Italian Roberto Marcora (No. 685) by 3-6, 6-3, and 7-6 in a time of two hours and 25 minutes. Subsequently, he played against Canadian Alexis Galarneau (No. 206) by 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 45 minutes.
Now he will play against Japanese Yosuke Watanuki, 24 years old, who reached this stage in 2019, but lost against Indian Prajnesh Gunneswaran by 7-6, 4-6, and 4-6. However, he will seek revenge against Varillas after his victory by 4-6, 7-6, and 6-3 over Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin, as well as the one by 6-4 and 6-2 against Australian Philip Sekulic.
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How was Juan Pablo Varillas' 2022?
Varillas started the year by being eliminated in the second round of qualifying in Adelaide against Danish Holger Rune as a preparation for the Australian Open qualifiers, in which he would have the same fate by being defeated by Portuguese Gastão Elias. Subsequently, he qualified for the ATP 250 in Córdoba; however, he withdrew due to injury in the second round. Then he recovered and attended the ATP 250 in Santiago, where he lost to Argentine Sebastián Báez and then played in the Davis Cup with the Peruvian team.
Here the top Peruvian racket would lead Team Peru to victory by winning his two singles matches against the Dellien brothers and teaming up with Sergio Galdós to triumph in the doubles match.
He then played in the Challenger in Chile, which he lost in the semifinals against Alejandro Tabillo, and in the one in Concepción, also in Chile, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Argentine Renzo Olivo.
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His first final of the year was in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where he lost to Icelandic Paul Jubb. Then he reached the semifinals in Pereira and Buenos Aires, and subsequently stayed in the second round in Provence, France, to prepare for qualifying for his only Grand Slam in Paris, the Roland Garros, where he won the qualification against Chilean Nicolas Jarry and was defeated in the first round by Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, then No. 9 in the ATP ranking.
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There Varillas started a European tour in which he would achieve his main success of the year in Gstaad, Switzerland, when he defeated then world No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut. Despite that, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Austrian Dominic Thiem, who was No. 3 in the world at his best. He continued in Austria and was eliminated in the second round. After that, he returned to Peru to compete in the Lima Challenger, where he reached the quarterfinals.
In Santo Domingo and in the US Open qualifier, he was eliminated in the first match, then he recovered from an injury to play the Davis Cup with Peru. Although he would win all his matches, Peru lost the series against Chile by 3-2. He retired due to injury in Villa María and reached his second final in Campiñas, Brazil, where he lost to another Icelandic player named Jan Choinski.
He went through a rough patch, losing in Rio de Janeiro, Ambato, Lima, and Guayaquil, to achieve his only title of the year in San Leopoldo, Brazil, where he defeated Argentine Facundo Bagnis in the final. Thus, he closed his year. In this process, he managed to enter the top 100 of the ATP ranking, a feat that no Peruvian had achieved since Luis Horna in 2009.