Juan Varon bet on himself a year ago. Now he’s heading to the PPA Tour
A few days before the biggest win of his pickleball career, Juan Varon was stuck on the sidelines.
On Monday at the Pickleball World Championships outside of Dallas, he failed to make it out of the qualifying rounds in both men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
In a year filled with numerous big wins and painful defeats on the PPA Tour and PPA Challenger Series, it was another setback that he didn’t see coming.
“It was very sad, to be honest, because I was so excited for Worlds coming into the event,” he said. “I thought my partners and I played pretty well, we just didn’t win. The opponents just played better in the important moments. I was very frustrated on Monday.”
While it was a missed opportunity, his friends and family reminded him that his week wasn’t over: He was still set to compete in the PPA Challenger Showdown over the weekend, an event that awarded the top finishers in each division a PPA Tour contract for the 2027 season. The matches on Monday were just a warmup, they told him.
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So the 25-year-old pickleball and tennis coach, who is from Columbia and currently lives in Atlanta, used his days off to regroup and refocus on the task at hand.
On Saturday night, he experienced the opposite end of the emotional spectrum with a win in the PPA Challenger Showdown mixed doubles final alongside partner Anne-Sophie Courteau – defeating Garrison Eaby/Madalina Grigoriu in a very intense match, 11-6, 10-12, 11-7. The win means Varon and Courteau will be regular competitors on the PPA Tour next year.
“This week has been a roller coaster of emotions,” Varon said afterward. “There’s definitely been a lot of ups and downs this year – even this week – but this was a really good opportunity and I’m glad we could take advantage.”
The breakthrough before the breakthrough
When Varon won The Kitchen Open Atlanta a year ago, it wasn’t just a good tournament result. It opened the door for greater possibilities.
He took his share of the $25,000 winners’ check and bet it on himself.
He used the money to pay entry fees and travel for several PPA Tour and PPA Challenger events throughout 2026, gaining valuable match experience with each and every tournament.
“The money from the Kitchen Open obviously helped, but that tournament also gave me a lot of confidence that I could compete with really good players heading into this year,” Varon said.
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While the win in Atlanta provided a good starting point, he still needed to find additional sponsors to support him financially. As somebody who is generally soft spoken and reserved, Varon said asking for money was an uncomfortable process for him.
“It’s tough to travel and finance everything by myself, so I had to start reaching out to companies,” said Varon, who ultimately signed sponsorship agreements with Warping Point, Pickleball Drop Shop and Wringer Wear. “It was definitely a challenge for me, but I just tried to be humble and respectful to everybody and be honest with my intentions. I told them everything was going toward financing my dreams to play pro, and thankfully those companies trusted me and have helped me out.”
Playing for more than himself
Varon’s story in tennis and eventually pickleball traces back to his childhood in Columbia. His older brother, Juan David Varon, was at one point the best junior tennis player in the country and came to the United States to play in college.
“He was always my superhero when I was growing up, and we were great friends even though there was a big age gap (8 years) between us,” Juan Varon said.
In 2014, when Juan was 13 years old, his brother died in a traffic accident while attending college at Bethune-Cookman University. In the years after the crash, Juan Varon pursued high-level tennis to follow in the footsteps of his brother, with the goal of also earning a scholarship to play in the U.S.
He did just that, and played at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. While his tennis career came to an end after college, he has kept his love of competition alive through pickleball, and has found a community of players through the PPA Challenger Series who have supported each other at tournaments as they all push toward the same goal of making it on the PPA Tour.
“We see a lot of the same people at tournaments and have all gotten to know each other by playing and getting dinners together while we’re traveling,” Varon said. “That really helps keep you going. Even when I’ve had tournaments that didn’t go well this year, there’s been a lot of people encouraging me and making me want to come back for the next one.”
Memories of his brother, which he carries through several tattoos, also remind him to keep battling through adversity.
In the most intense moments of Saturday’s mixed doubles match with a PPA Tour contract on the line, Varon said was thinking of his brother between points.
“I was just saying to myself, ‘Please, brother, help me right now because I cannot do it by myself,’” Varon said. “At the end when we won, it was a huge relief. I just looked up and said, “Thank you, bro. Thank you for the help.’”
