Oliver Tarvet’s fairytale run at Wimbledon was brought to an end on his Centre Court debut as Carlos Alcaraz reached the third round with a straight-sets win.
Alcaraz prevailed 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 against Tarvet, who at No733 was the lowest-ranked player in the men’s draw this year.
Tarvet had become the first British male in eight years to make it through qualifying and, on Monday, won his first tour-level match as he beat fellow qualifier Leandro Riedi 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on his Wimbledon debut, never so much as facing a break point.
Alcaraz admitted he “loved” Tarvet’s game style, but it was the defending champion and world No2 who came through in the end, winning a 20th consecutive match on tour. In the third round on Friday, the Spaniard will face either the 25th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or Jan-Lennard Struff.
Tarvet, the 21-year-old from St Albans, has won £99,000 in prize money from his spirited Wimbledon run, but an American College rule means student athletes can only claim up to $10,000 (£7,290) of their earnings as it stands.
But Tarvet will not have been thinking of the money when he took to Centre Court in the sun on Wednesday to face the defending champion and world No2. Until this defeat by Alcaraz, he had not lost an official match either in the College or professional game since November.
Tarvet made an immediate impression, winning three break points in the very first game of the match, albeit Alcaraz held.
The Spaniard then broke immediately and held again to make it 3-0, but the roar from Tarvet was audible when he then held serve to get off the mark for the match.
If the 6-1 scoreline of the first set looked more one-sided that things had actually felt, Tarvet can be pleased with how the final two sets looked. Certainly, he was closer to the level.
After holding the first game of the second set, he broke Alcaraz’s serve for the first time in the match. But Alcaraz broke back immediately and at 4-4 was able to break the Brit to love before serving the set out.
The third set began by trading blows on serve until Alcaraz broke Tarvet’s serve for 3-2. Tarvet was not going away lightly, though, and broke back straight after for 3-3.
However, Alcaraz made it three breaks of serve in as many games to go 4-3 ahead and, from there, had enough to make the line and reach the third round at Tarvet’s expense.
He gave the Brit a warm reception as they shook hands at the net, and complimented Tarvet’s approach to the match.
“Just his second match on the tour,” Alcaraz said. “I just loved his game, to be honest. The level he played in his first match on Centre Court was brilliant.
“I knew I had to be at my best. Today I just played great tennis. But, yes, Oliver was great as well.
“Today I played against someone playing at home, it’s not easy, but the fans were really respectful [to me].”
