The Roland Garros lived a historic moment this Friday when the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas managed to advance to the round of 16 after beating the Polish Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) and 6-2, to become in the next rival of the legendary Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.
The tennis player from Lima, the capital of Peru, emulated his compatriot Jaime Yzaga, who had been the last Peruvian to qualify for these instances and did so in 1994. It should be noted that this is the best performance of Varillas at Roland Garros , and it is that previously he had not achieved a victory.
But this achievement from Lima has a greater value for him and for the statistics since he did it by coming back from two sets in his first two matches, thus demonstrating his determination and showing that his hard preparation has yielded good results.
Luckily, Varillas did not experience this historic event alone since he was accompanied by a large Peruvian fan base who supported him from start to finish, making him feel like a national hero in what was the most important match and victory of his career. until now.
Until now, only Yzaga had played in the round of 16 at a Grand Slam. He did it four times: in 1985 in the United States, in 1991 in Australia and in 1994 in Paris and again in the United States. in Australia in 1991 he passed that round and three years later also in the United States.
For Varillas this was his second foray into the final draw in Paris, where he entered for the first time last year after seven attempts to gain access through the qualifying phase. His performance was brief, since after winning the first two sets against the Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime he ended up losing in 5.
In the last Australian Open he entered by ranking, but he did not overcome the first duel against the German Alexander Zverev, also to five sets.
With information from EFE.
Also read:
– Novak Djokovic’s controversial message about Kosovo that sparked controversy at Roland Garros
– Rafael Nadal will not be at Roland Garros and instead will play a golf tournament
– Carlos Alcaraz displaces Novak Djokovic and returns to number 1 in the world in the preview of Roland Garros