Juan Pablo Varillas was born on October 6, 1995, in Lima, Peru, to Pablo and Milagros Varillas. His father is a mechanical engineer, while his mother works as an accountant at Peru’s National Center for Potato Research. Varillas began playing tennis at the age of 5 at a club where his parents were members.
The Peruvian spent many years competing on the ITF Futures Circuit. Varillas reached his first Futures final in August 2014 but then did not reach that stage again for another two years. After that, he made 13 more finals on that Circuit, winning five titles. The last of these was in Trieste, Italy, in September 2019.
Varillas' first Challenger Tour title came a month later in Campinas, Brazil, after beating Juan Pablo Ficovich in the final. Another title came just a week later in the Dominican Republic. The Peruvian overcame Federico Coria in the final on that occasion.
Four Challenger Tour finals followed in 2022, including two titles in Biella and Santiago. After progressing to three more Challenger finals in 2022, Varillas won another of these titles in March 2024 in Santiago once again. All of his finals at this level came on clay.
Varillas made his Grand Slam debut at the 2022 French Open, failing to get past the first round. However, the Peruvian had a breakthrough at Roland-Garros in 2023. He began by coming back from two sets down to defeat Juncheng Shang in the opening round.
Incredibly, Varillas recovered from a two-set deficit for the second time in a row against the 19th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round. But he was not done there. Varillas shocked the 13th seed Hubert Hurkacz in the Round of 32, winning in five sets once again. His run was ended by the eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
