Novak Djokovic walks firmly towards eternity, this Sunday one step closer to reaching his 23rd Grand Slam title, the most in history, after easily beating the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (6-3, 6-2 and 6 -2) in the round of 16 at Roland Garros. His rival in the quarterfinals will be the Russian Karen Khachanov, the executioner of the Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
An entire country was waiting for a tennis player. Peru encouraged from a distance its only representative of the racket sport in the top 100 ranking, specifically in position 94. The next one is found beyond position 400. Varillas, who had not won a match before arriving in Paris In a major, he was facing the most important duel of his career after surviving three battles in the previous rounds, all of them ending in five sets. But the Serbian legend was a wall that he could barely scale.
Despite the rival’s little pedigree, the Belgrade player entered the game concentrated. In the blink of an eye he was already leading 4-0 on the scoreboard. Djokovic relaxed for a moment, with an attitude more of a training session than of the round of 16 at Roland Garros, and Varillas, 27, took the opportunity to show, at least, his best shots to the spectators on the Philippe Chatrier court.
Relying on the parallel setback, the tennis player from Lima managed to recover a break and was close to equalizing the first set, at which time Djokovic woke up from lethargy. After a great exchange, the Balkan saved a breaking ball and spurred on the public. The respectable Frenchman, who had had his ups and downs with the Serb, reconciled with the tennis player at the end of the match shouting “Djokovic, Djokovic!”
The number 3 in the world, who never got confused again, imposed logic on French clay and the electronic game soon revealed the enormous tennis difference between the two. Solved the small rebellion of the initial set, the ‘jackal’ dominated all records. He defended with confidence from the back, both forehand and backhand, and went up to the net as soon as he had the chance to keep up the sensations with the volley. From time to time, in addition, he closed the point with a subtle drop, always to the public’s liking this blow.
Little by little, the Serb eroded the morale of a Varillas who tried endlessly, finally imprisoned by impotence before an omnipresent rival. Djokovic no longer conceded break chances in a second and third set that he played at will. Not even the wind changed the script for the Balkan, who is already three games away from breaking a tie with Rafa Nadal at the historic peak of men’s tennis. Only number one Carlos Alcaraz, his possible rival in the semifinals, seems to have enough tennis to prevent Djokovic from winning the Musketeers Cup for the third time.
