Perez Alarcon: the first Peruvian girl to win at Wimbledon since 1989
By defeating Czechia’s Amelie Smejkalova 6-4 6-1 in her first-round match, Lucciana Perez Alarcon became the first girl from Peru to win a Junior Grand Slam match at Wimbledon since 1989.
Perez Alarcon clearly has a taste for making history after last month reaching the girls’ singles final at Roland Garros, in the process becoming the first Peruvian girl to reach a Junior Grand Slam final.
But her victory today goes deeper than a mere milestone. Twelve months ago, Perez Alarcon lost her opening match at the Junior Championships to Germany’s Ella Seidel during which she threw away 10 match points.
When the order of play was printed last night, Perez Alarcon could not fail to notice that she was again scheduled to play on Court No. 9, the same court she played on a year ago when defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.
“This is a really good win for me as the memories from Wimbledon last year were not good,” Perez Alarcon tells itftennis.com. “Having 10 match points and 10 opportunities to win a match but not doing is tough to take.
“But perhaps that experience helped me to develop a mentality where I focus on every point. In that situation last year, perhaps I was thinking that I had already won the match.
“It was a demonstration that the match is not finished until the final ball and until you finish it. It really helped me develop a mindset that I needed and, looking back, it was a good learning curve.
“Back on the same court, I was tight and nervous to begin with. Again, that demonstrates to me that even if you’re not feeling great at the start, you must keep in the present, play the balls in front of you and focus on every point.
“I am so happy. This win gives me confidence to play on grass. In Peru, there are no grass court, and it is really hard to adapt in a two-week period as this is the only time each year when I play on grass. That is why it is such a good win.”
Exposure to grass-court tennis is an important part of Perez Alarcon’s development and, factoring in the two wins she chalked up at J300 Roehampton last week, she now has four career wins on the green stuff.
That represents progress, a word synonymous with Perez Alarcon, who is currently ranked No. 4 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings following a season in which she has claimed three J300 singles titles.
The 18-year-old’s potential was reflected in the receipt of a Grand Slam Player Grant, financed by the Grand Slam Player Development Programme, earlier this year which assists with her ongoing development and competition-related costs.
Perez Alarcon also seems to have a wealth of knowledge to tap into. Her coach is Tupi Venero, who reached No. 297 in the ATP Rankings in the early 1990s, while Peru’s Billie Jean King Cup captain is Laura Arraya.
Arraya reached a career-high No. 14 in the WTA Rankings and also the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1991. She is now something of a mentor to Perez Alarcon, who has won all five singles matches she has contested in Billie Jean King Cup.
“Laura has given me a lot of advice, about everything really, and I talk with her a lot,” said Perez Alarcon, who is originally from Lima. “My coach also knows what I feel when I play and knows when I am nervous. I also know Pablo Arraya and Sergio Galdos, I have learned a lot from them.”
A full list of results from the 2023 Junior Championships, Wimbledon is available here.