Tarvet’s Wimbledon dream ended by classy Alcaraz

British qualifier competed gamely in three-set defeat

- LAWRENCE OSTLERE ON CENTRE COURT

“A big thing for me is playing the ball, not the player,” said Ollie Tarvet before the biggest match of his life against reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz. Except the ball came at the world No 733 faster than ever before, with more topspin revs and at a more devilish angle. Tarvet was right: it was the same ball played in the same parameters as his wins on the US college scene in front of a few dozen spectators. And yet this was almost another game entirely, like how laying cheese on bread under the grill is, technically, cooking.

This second-round match came in two parts. The first set felt like what it might look like if a regular muggle played tennis against the world No 2 on Centre Court. Tarvet has played opponents who hit the ball hard, but never before had he faced a player who combines such extreme levels of speed and spin with unerring accuracy, such that Alcaraz’s groundstrokes rushed over the net and dropped magnetically into far-flung corners of the court time and time again, hitting 38 winners in all across three sets.

“I’ve played against really good players before but not quite the level of Alcaraz,” Tarvet said. “As soon as I dropped to 95 per cent focus, I lost the game. When I missed the first serve, the guy’s on the baseline and it’s intimidating, he’s ready to make you run.”

Alcaraz generates around 3,200 RPM on his forehand compared to an average of 2,700 RPM on the ATP Tour; he averages 78mph from the baseline compared to a Tour average of 75mph, and his shot quality is rated as 8.62 by the ATP’s data bods, above Djokovic (8.54) and behind only Jannik Sinner (8.80). The result was that routine groundstrokes stunned the Centre Court crowd, like a moment midway through the first set when he cracked a cross-court missile which brought audible gasps.

“He’s so effortless,” Tarvet said. “It doesn’t feel like he’s hitting the ball that hard but it comes through so quick and so heavy.”