:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/GJ6YVWDJTNFRHGGD3WSNS4WXAE.jpg "Great comeback! Juan Pablo Varillas debuts with victory at Roland Garros 2023")
He never gave up! This Monday John Paul Varillas defeated Chinese Juncheng Shang 3-2 in his debut at Roland Garros 2023. After recovering from a bad start, the Peruvian athlete won with partial scores of 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1. The meeting lasted 3 hours and 22 minutes. At one point he seemed lost, but he signed a spectacular comeback in one of the most difficult tennis tournaments in the world.
The first Peruvian racket started the game very uncomfortable on Court 5 of the Stade Roland Garros in Paris. Shang got an important lead of two sets to nil. Rods was against the ropes, but his mental and physical strength gave him the victory. He accomplished the seemingly impossible and won three straight sets to advance to the next round.
This is Juan Pablo’s first triumph in a Grand Slam. It should be remembered that he had played a duel at Roland Garros 2022 and another at the Australia Open this year. Both games ended in defeat. But this time he qualified for the next round of the prestigious tennis tournament.
Thanks to his triumph, the 27-year-old Peruvian received a prize of $110,000 and 10 ranking points that provisionally place him in 82nd place in the ATP ranking. Without a doubt, a historic victory for national tennis. He will now have to focus on the next obstacle that he will have at Roland Garros 2023.
Rods defeated the Chinese Juncheng Shang in his debut at Roland Garros. (Photo: Eurosport)
Juan Pablo Varillas: who is your next rival?
In the next round of the Grand Slam, Juan Pablo Varillas will have to face Roberto Bautista Agut, who is number 24 in the ranking and defeated the Chinese Yibing Wu 3-0. The meeting between the Peruvian and the Spanish is scheduled to be played this Wednesday, May 31 from 4:00 am (time in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia).
It should be noted that Rods and Bautista have already faced each other before. It was in 2022 and the victory was taken by the Peruvian. In a hard-fought duel, he finished 7-5 in favor of the number racket from Peru. That victory served to qualify for the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 Swiss Open Gstaad. We expect the result to be repeated this week.
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