John Paul Varillas He has given an interview to the ATP, in which he has talked about the bad times as a tennis player, his family and the difficulties in accessing the top 100 of the ATP Ranking. Entering among the 100 best tennis players in the world has been very difficult for the Peruvian, but he has achieved it this 2022.
His stage in Barcelona
The Peruvian tennis player was in Spain in 2016, at the age of 21 and occupying position 700, that was a difficult time for him. Juan Pablo Varillas confesses in the interview that he gained some weight and did not have an easy day to day. When he couldn’t take it anymore, Varillas called his parents to confess that he was leaving Barcelona.
His return to Peru
Traveling to Europe in search of a dream and returning with the feeling of failure was not an easy situation for the man from Lima. Upon returning to the Peruvian capital, Varillas had to avoid the bad thoughts that invaded his head and stripped him of his confidence and faith as a tennis player.
back to school
After seeing his goal as an unlikely tennis player, Varillas decided to resume his engineering studies, it was his close circle who urged him to try it in the world of tennis for the last time.
Buenos Aires, the last bullet
After the insistence of his family and Dulio Beretta, his coach at the time, Varillas tried to reach high-level professional tennis by moving to the Argentine capital. After this movement, with the help of his coach, the Peruvian began to be more professional and gradually raise his level of tennis. As Varillas acknowledges in his interview with the ATP, Buenos Aires was a turning point and a complete turnaround in his life. Training with high-level tennis players like Leo Mayer and Gonzalo Villanueva gave him the boost he needed. In addition to the incorporation in his life of a psychologist who helped him in the mental aspect.
The challenge of living alone
Juan Pablo Varillas also had to face the experience of living alone for the first time. Like any university student, Varillas had to cook for himself without having any knowledge of cooking: “in Peru he had everything done and here it was my turn to do it.” YouTube was a source of culinary inspiration for the Peruvian, who confessed that at first he did not know how to cook or rice.
rank improvement
The balance on a mental and physical level allowed him an evolution in his tennis, in 2020 the Peruvian was in the Top 150 of the ATP and his dream was already a reality.
TOP 100
Rods in Gstaad broke into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings for the first time, beating Roberto Bautista and losing to Thiem in the quarter-finals. Currently, he is number 97 in the ranking and according to him he has confessed in his interview with the ATP it is a dream to have achieved it, it was his goal for a long time.
The one from Lima is the fifth Peruvian to achieve this feat, already done by Jaime Yzaga (1989), Pablo Arraya (1984), Luis Horna (2004) and Carlos di Laura (1986). Varillas has great challenges before him, luckily he listened to his family and he tried it in Buenos Aires for the last time.
