LONDON :As his Wimbledon journey was brought to a close by holder Carlos Alcaraz, Ollie Tarvet discovered the hard way that the difference between the very best and the rest is frequently in the astonishing mental strength of the elite.
Britain’s Tarvet, ranked 733 in the world, went toe-to-toe with Alcaraz for large chunks of his 6-1 6-4 6-4 defeat, exchanging punishing shots from the baseline and chasing down every last ball to keep the pressure on his illustrious opponent.
But in the brief moments he let his focus drift, five-times Grand Slam champion Alcaraz was ready to pounce, inflicting maximum damage in short, sharp bursts that took the contest out of the reach of the British qualifier.
“I think just a big difference, something I learned today, was just how difficult mentally it is,” he said. “I’ve played against some really good players before, but not quite the level of Alcaraz.
“I feel like as soon as I had 95 per cent focus, I lost a game. You saw that today when I made a big emotional push to break him twice, and then I got broken to love straight back.
“It was because I gave everything, kind of emptied the tank for that game to break him. Then you have to hold. Again, it’s just really, really difficult to keep that 100 per cent focus and 100 per cent intensity.”
Tarvet is a college student in the United States and has no immediate plans to join the full-time grind of the men’s tour.
His prize money for losing in the second round was 99,000 pounds ($134,966) but due to his amateur status he is only allowed to pocket a maximum of $10,000 under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules.
He had to battle through qualifying to earn his spot in the tournament and was the lowest-ranked player to begin the men’s singles draw.
Tarvet had his moments against Alcaraz, firing up the home crowd with his never-say-die attitude and sporadically flashing winners past the Spaniard, who was perhaps not at his best.
Yet in the crunch moments, the world number two seemed to have other gears at his disposal that Tarvet lacked.
“I feel like a thing is he’s so effortless,” the Briton said. “It doesn’t feel like he’s hitting the ball that hard, but it comes through so quick and so heavy … He’s such a complete tennis player.”
The 21-year-old admitted that he had woken up a couple of times in the night, while his heart was beating more quickly in the car en route to Wimbledon.
Yet the experience of testing himself against the twice defending champion on Wimbledon’s famous Centre Court in front of a crowd desperate for him to succeed was one he would not forget.
“Even though it was not the result that I wanted today, it was definitely the most special day of my life,” he said.
($1 = 0.7335 pounds)
