Tennis star offers his successes to La Virgen de Guadalupe

By Mary Lim 

On a warm summer day in Tucson, I found myself in quite an ironic situation in order to get a most unlikely story: a young Catholic teen at the Jewish Community Center, where he practices tennis with his older friend for countless hours. Add to that picture a rare genetic disorder, some Wilson-sponsored gear, and a two-time cancer survivor father and you probably still can’t piece this puzzle together without some help from the divine. How God’s hand moved in this tale is exactly the story that the Nogales family has to tell.  

Pure radiant joy and enthusiasm for all of life’s adventures are among the characteristics that shine through Juan Pablo Lopez’s personality when he first greets you.  

Juan Pablo is like most teenage boys, but he’s anything but typical. At the age of five, doctors diagnosed the Nogales native with Mosaic Trisomy 9, a rare genetic chromosomal disorder. The disease manifests in developmental delays, psychomotor or gross motor delays, physical anomalies, or congenital heart defects. This rare disorder presents differently in every individual diagnosed, depending on what percentage of the genes contain the thrice repeated ninth chromosome (a “normal” gene will have two ninth chromosomes, not three). In Juan Pablo, his speech and language processing are most noticeably affected. Other notable symptoms include extensive allergies to a long list of foods and pollens, asthma, and abnormal muscular and joint development. 

It’s unclear what causes the disorder, though as an infant Juan Pablo had his share of complications. At birth he weighed 4 pounds and spent the first three weeks of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As a newly married couple, his parents Jessica Ruiz and Miguel Lopez were accustomed to challenges – soon after they learned that Jessica was pregnant, Miguel was diagnosed with lung cancer. Following an extremely trying season marked with chemotherapy and prenatal appointments, the couple welcomed their baby, Juan Pablo, on December 16, 2005. 

Throughout toddlerhood, Juan Pablo wasn’t meeting key milestones in development. At the age of 4 his parents had him tested for genetic disorders. In an unfortunate twist, on the same day as Juan Pablo’s diagnosis, the family learned that his father Miguel was facing prostate cancer.  

Amidst the devastation and the fear, Jessica knew that God had a plan. 

The family had always been faithfully Catholic, but the double diagnosis challenged them to truly lean on their faith. As if their day hadn’t been terrible enough, when they came home from Miguel’s surgery, they found one of their bedrooms flooded. Jessica recalls feeling like the young family was constantly in damage control mode, putting out fire after fire with little more than a prayer at a time, surviving as best they could. As weeks turned into months and the family bounced back and forth from treatments to therapies, Jessica and Miguel continued to seek guidance on how best to give Juan Pablo the best quality of life possible. His occupational therapist recommended tennis and it was a game changer.  

For Juan Pablo tennis began as a type of type of therapy meant to encourage right-left brain communication and to hopefully minimize any developmental motor delays.  

The full extent of the sport though could only have been known by God. On this particular summer day, The New Outlook caught up with Juan Pablo and his parents while he was practicing at the Jewish Community Center (JCC). Though Juan Pablo’s verbal communication is limited, the family’s close ties allow Juan Pablo to communicate through his mother.  

Juan Pablo started playing tennis when he was 5 years old, and he started competing with the United States Tennis Association at the age of 12. When he and his parents began his tennis journey, they never did so with the intention of earning gold medals, international success, embracing the Special Olympics, or weekly competitive tournaments.  

A lifelong parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish in Nogales, AZ, Juan Pablo is now a bi-national star athlete in his age group. Raised Catholic, and with many of his tennis role models also being Catholic,  Juan Pablo says that he starts every tennis match with the sign of the cross.  

The teenage tennis marvel made history when he became the first tennis athlete from Arizona to compete in and win a Division 1 gold medal in the Special Olympics Virginia Xperience Tennis Invitational . The competition was held Jan 9-11, 2023 in Virginia.  

In his early competition days, when Juan Pablo was signing up for tournaments, his severe allergies were a worry. For some foods, mild exposure could cause a reaction – even ingredients in some makeups that he would be exposed to while out and about would cause a reaction. Traveling for tournaments was anxiety-inducing for Jessica and Juan Pablo’s medical team. After weighing the pros and cons their family determined that the risks were manageable.  

Then when the opportunity for Juan Pablo to play in the Special Olympics Virginia Xperience Tennis Invitational presented itself, Jessica had Juan Pablo’s allergies reevaluated. Amazingly his allergies had subsided significantly. What was previously a pages-long list for the section of food allergies, now had just a few lines detailing peanuts and a few specific tree nuts. Jessica couldn’t believe it, she said it was a miraculous thing for the family to behold, and the only way that they could explain it was that it was all in God’s time, that this was His plan for Juan Pablo. It was time for Juan Pablo to take the gift and message that God gave him to the rest of the world.  

For the last 11 years Juan Pablo has been playing tennis with mainstream tournaments and leagues. But this last year he made it big with an invitation to play in the Special Olympics. Even more special Juan Pablo is now sponsored by Wilson Sporting Goods. Every win, every trophy and medal, Juan Pablo dedicates to The Virgin Mary. The family affectionately refers to her as la Virgen de Guadalupe, for whom he has a great devotion. 

At home and on his long drives to competitions, Juan Pablo loves to listen to songs about the Virgin Mary, and the family always starts a trip to a tournament by praying a rosary together. 

His dedication to Our Lady was something that Juan Pablo was brought up with – his mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and so on passed on to him the Catholic Faith and their beautiful relationship with Jesus through his mother, Mary.  

















Juan Pablo has a special image of la Virgen in his bedroom, where he places all of his trophies and medals in offering to her.

Juan Pablo keeps a holy card of the Virgin in his tennis bag and is always praying to her. Full of emotion and wonder, Jessica says that Juan Pablo is very close to the spiritual world, that he has a unique relationship with God and the Blessed Mother, and that the spiritual and the physical seem to be intertwined so easily in Juan Pablo’s life. They are continually witnessing miracles in their lives which they attribute to la Virgen de Guadalupe and to Padre Pio. It isn’t faith on Sundays and then “normal” life the rest of the days for the family – they live their faith in every moment. 

At the Jewish Community Center (JCC) where he practices for hours, three times per week, his hitting partner, Eun Lee, whom Juan Pablo looks up to and lovingly refers to as “Tio”, says, “I’ve never met more dedicated parents than these two.” 

Jessica and Miguel say that they are constantly praying, listening to God, and discerning what is best for their family. “God had all of this planned out,” says Jessica, “it wasn’t easy, but we prayed a lot,” and they trusted in God’s plan.  

Jessica contemplates how to explain the way in which God has seen them through trials, “God helps navigate the insanity. ‘Illuminar’ is what we say in Spanish, ‘he sets the path.’ We pray and listen.” 

For Juan Pablo and his family everything happened as it was supposed to in God’s timing to bring them to where they are now. Though it was difficult, Juan Pablo’s health troubles and allergies – and the resolution of them – were all divine providence. Jessica believes the timing of the Special Olympics was all God. Finding each one of Juan Pablo’s coaches, therapists, the JCC, and his hitting partners – all could only have been orchestrated by God himself. So many other little details about the family’s life that came together in just the right time to bring them exactly to where they are at – only God could have written it so.  

Mosaic Trisomy 9 can drastically inhibit a person’s physical strength. But for Juan Pablo, his ability to play tennis and excel at it is nothing short of a miracle for their family. Jessica said she showed Juan Pablo’s orthopedic specialist a video of him playing and the doctor told her he never would have thought that Juan Pablo would be able to move the way he does on the tennis court. 

“He’s out there, he’s happy, he’s passionate,” Jessica says of her son, “sports don’t have borders. He has impacted people. People are amazed by him, how happy he his... it’s a message of hope or inspiration.” 

Beyond his athleticism, Juan Pablo is a faithful Catholic who made his First Communion in June 2023 on the feast of Corpus Christi.  

Fr. Marcos Velasquez, the pastor at Sacred Heart Parish where Juan Pablo is a parishioner, commented, “I am very happy for Juan Pablo Lopez. His mother, Jessica is to be commended for taking his spiritual preparation for this sacrament in hand. I am also very grateful to God for the gift that Juan Pablo is to his family and the parish, and indeed to everyone. Juan Pablo is an example of how God gives His gifts and talents to all His sons and daughters.” 

He prepared to receive his Sacraments in one-on-one classes with Sister Agustina Hernandez, a nun who lives in a convent in Nogales near their home. Meanwhile Juan Pablo is also looking forward to Confirmation.  

For Juan Pablo tennis began as so many things often do: a gift from God, a simple attempt at a healthy lifestyle, and a grasp at hope. So what happens when that gift from God is acknowledged, received, and nurtured? For Juan Pablo, tennis turned out to be a great talent, and an answer to his family’s prayer. It was the key to obtaining and maintaining his physical health, a vehicle through which he receives and communicates grace, and the carrier by which he delivers a divine message of hope.