British No 719 misses out on £59,000 payday due to obscure rule

It is one measure of Oliver Tarvet’s gloriously absurd circumstances at these championships that he has earned a second-round engagement with Carlos Alcaraz. Another is the surreal dilemma it has caused him.

The latter concerns the spoils of victory for this 21-year-old student from St Albans, whose opening-day win against Leandro Riedi meant he would, ordinarily, be in line for £99,000.

But therein lies an issue: how can he trouser the loot and not lose his eligibility to compete on the US college circuit, from hence he came?

A good problem to have, no doubt, and the same would be said of an encounter against the two-time defending champion, which will almost certainly be staged on Centre Court on Wednesday.

‘As a kid, this is what you dream of,’ he said. ‘I’m quietly confident I can win against anyone. Alcaraz isn’t an exception to that.’

That he has achieved such an appointment is quite remarkable, primarily for the fact that Tarvet is the lowest ranked man in the draw at 733rd in the world and even Wimbledon have limits in their distribution of domestic wild cards.

For Tarvet, usually found deeper than an anglerfish, that meant navigating the qualifiers to reach the main draw and then crushing Riedi, ranked 230 sports higher, without conceding so much as a break point. He was inspired out there on Court No 4.

Alcaraz? We cannot say the same – he required five sets to beat 38-year-old Fabio Fognini in a drama of errors no one saw coming. The cohort of surprised onlookers will have included Tarvet, who might use those struggles as a motivation for pulling off the impossible.

His lesser challenge centres on keeping as much of the prize money as he can. Under the rules of the US college system, on which he has been playing for three years at San Diego University, he is only allowed to record a profit of £7,300 per year.

The kicker is this: anything he doesn’t spend in the form of expenses for the remaining £91,700 would likely be forfeited. Tarvet is therefore in the unusual position of enjoying an excellent run but also at risk of giving up life-changing money.

As he put it: ‘I’ve got to find £60,000, £70,000 of expenses. Tennis is an expensive sport so hopefully I can make that happen. Just pay my coaches a little bit extra. Fly business class…’

He was half-joking and half-serious, but had already made his over-riding point into an on-court microphone after his win: ‘I’m not here for the money, I’m here for the crowd, the experience and just to stamp my mark. I think I’ve done a good job so far.’

The performance was without blemishes – Riedi was on the cusp of the top 100 this time last year and the Swiss is only 23 with a decent serve. Tarvet broke it once in each set and gave up just 12 unforced errors, familiarising his audience with both a strong defensive game and a delayed, guttural grunt off each groundstroke that might irritate future opposition.

Riedi’s frustrations spilled off when he was broken early in the second set, which was aimed at the time Tarvet was taking between points. Implying that the umpire was giving the home lad favourable treatment, he called out: ‘It’s because he’s British.’

In response, the umpire said: ‘I would be careful about saying something like that.’

Tetchy stuff, but ultimately fruitless if the aim was to change the direction of the match. For Tarvet, the context of his situation could be told by the fact that he once played in front of 800 fans in the US, but the number more commonly has been in double digits. For this week’s exposure, TK Maxx have sponsored him and their foresight has been rewarded with an Alcaraz showdown.

As for the Spaniard, the performance against Fognini was a mess from the start. Fognini, once ranked as high as ninth in the world and now down in 138th, was brilliant in how he capitalised to create the scare.

That the 38-year-old broke serve five times points towards one Alcaraz shortcoming. The other came from the second seed’s 62 unforced errors – his forehand was off for the duration of an unexpected classic, spanning four hours and 37 minutes in 32C heat.

‘I tried my best but I can be better,’ Alcaraz said. ‘I need to improve in the next round.’

A delightfully unconventional tie awaits.