Juan Pablo Varillas classified the Australian Open as a lucky loser: the reasons for his classification | Tennis | Alexander Zverev | SPORT-TOTAL

John Paul Varillas He has the party-to-party philosophy. He says it and clarifies it whenever he can. Thus he reached the third round of the Australian Open qualy, and despite the defeat against the Japanese Yosuke Watanuki (6-3, 6-4), he managed to qualify thanks to the lucky loser draw.

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The serve of the Japanese was what made the difference in favor of the Japanese, especially in the ‘ace’, since it was the weapon to save himself every time he was in trouble. The oriental scored 17 aces against 5 for the Peruvian.

Meanwhile, Watanuki made two breaks in four opportunities, while Varillas only had one chance to break, but could not make it. An ace saved the Japanese.

The draw

Being the fifth seed in the standings, Juan Pablo Varillas had the chance to access the main draw thanks to the so-called lucky loser, two places for the best ranked players who remain in the last instance of the qualy, after the withdrawal of the Croatian Marin Cilic and the Hungarian Attila Balazs. And the draw went in his favor and he will face the German Alexander Zverev.

“They are two lucky losers. The draw is made among the first four ranked players who did not manage to access the main draw and from those two chosen ones come out to replace Cilic and Balazs ”, explains Manuel Cabezas, a tennis specialist who followed the broadcast of Juan Pablo’s match live. Rods in the Peruvian tennis channel. It turns out that the first four classifieds were eliminated in the previous rounds, so the Peruvian was in the draw to access the tournament.

The Chilean Alejandro Tabilo (1st) stayed in round 2, the Italian Marcos Cecchinato (2nd) withdrew in the first round, the Romanian Albot (3rd) fell in round 1 and the Ecuadorian Emilio Gómez (4th ) stayed in round 2. So the top seed in round 3 was Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas. 16 tennis players qualify for the qualy and another two as lucky loser. These last two places are defined in a draw between four players and Varillas will be one of them, so he has a 50% chance.

Even if one of the slots in said draw was not won, the two losers were left as alternates before last-minute casualties in the tournament. That is, if any player is injured or withdraws before the first round that begins on Sunday, the alternate could take his place. “Among those who do not enter the draw, a draw is drawn for alternate 1 and alternate 2. If a player who has not made his debut retires, the alternates replace him,” explained Cabezas.

Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas will play his second Grand Slam main draw and this time he will face Alexander Zverev, number 13 in the ATP ranking. The German returned to the circuit this year after overcoming a severe injury he suffered in the Roland Garros semifinals last year. He lost both of his United Cup group stage matches in Brisbane to Taylor Fritz (9ATP) and Jirl Lehecka (81 ATP).

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