Juan Pablo Varillas and the ATP ranking: What allows the Peruvian tennis player to be in the top 100? | Tennis | RMMD DTCC | SPORT-TOTAL

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And so Juan Pablo has been fulfilling objectives at 26 years of age. Olympic last year. Debut in a Grand Slam main draw -he passed qualifying at Roland Garros and matched number 9 Félix Auger-Alliasime-, victory over a top tennis player like the one he achieved over Roberto Bautista-Agut, 19 in the world-, two years ago weeks at the Gstaad ATP, and now to climb into the top 100.

Although the ranking is updated on Mondays -Sunday nights in Peruvian time-, Juan Pablo Varillas has already claimed to be in that elite. In the live counter that is handled in this sport, at the close of this edition, the Peruvian was in 97th place, only with options for two tennis players to surpass him. For this reason, the greeting of the world came to the national and he himself was in charge of sharing them on his social networks, thanking the gestures.

“It’s a significant promotion for his career,” says Jorge Salinas, a national tennis specialist. “Now the question is to stay and keep climbing,” he adds.

“It seems like one more number, but for Peruvian tennis it is a boost. Having a Peruvian who appears on TV playing the Grand Slams motivates. The wave is running for the boys and for those who are already there”, says Gonzalo Ferreyra, an Argentine journalist who works for the ESPN network.

The challenge

Since Luis Horna’s 99th place in the fortnight of February 2009, the Peruvian flag has not been seen in the top 100 of the ATP. Today, Lucho usually travels with the young Peruvians for their competitions in Europe – he was with Gonzalo Bueno, Ignacio Buse and Lucciana Pérez at Roland Garros -, and he was the one who believed the most in the rise of Juan Pablo. “He has the tennis to be in the Top 100 ″, he told us in 2019, but the pandemic slowed down Varillas’ rise. Until today.

Juan Pablo himself works for that and more. “Which Rods are you today?”, We asked him a month ago and he is the one who enjoys. “You work, you play tennis and you think about playing this type of tournament, being on these courts, in the same tournament as our idols,” he told us. Well, being in the Top 100 of the ranking can allow him to be closer to accessing those tournaments that he wants so much.

With a better ranking, the Peruvian could directly play the ATP tournaments without having to pass the qualifiers, which in principle would ease his calendar -there are three games that are played in the classification. “This will allow him to have direct access to the ATP 250 and play the ATP 500 and Master 1000 classifications. In addition to having the possibility of playing the Grand Slams directly and being in the first round already means a significant prize in economic matters. . He is already starting to earn money”, Jorge shows us.

“It is a very big confidence boost. Already with the economic tranquility that he may have, he can make a jump to the top 50, because it is something for which he has potential without a doubt “Gonzalo Ferreyra tells us.

The first challenge will be to maintain and advance in the ranking, especially to think about entering the US Open directly, the last Grand Slam of the season. Today, the national marches as alternate 15 of the main draw, that is, he will have to play the qualy to access the major.

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