Carlos Alcaraz's British opponent forced to offload £100k winnings as deadline set

Wales Online

a day ago

Carlos Alcaraz's British opponent forced to offload £100k winnings as deadline set
Oliver Tarvet is up against the reigning Wimbledon champion in the biggest match of his career
Tarvet will have to offload most of his Wimbledon winnings
(Image:)
British student Oliver Tarvet faces the biggest match of his fledgling career this afternoon as he takes on reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round of the men's singles at SW19.
The 21-year-old is the lowest-ranked player in the singles field at 733rd in the world, but breezed past Swiss star Leandro Riedi in straight sets in the opening round to set up a dream draw with number two seed Alcaraz, who is looking for his third title win at Wimbledon in as many years.
‌
Tarvet, who is still a student amateur at the University of San Diego, is hoping to spring the mother of all surprises on the French Open champion on Wednesday afternoon, and knows that £152,000 is also on offer if he can pull it off.
‌
By beating Riedi and making it through to the second round, he already guaranteed prize money of £99,000 - but he will actually end up banking a tiny fraction of that sum.
Having come through the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) system while studying in the United States, Tarvet must follow some of the organisation's rules, which limit the amount of prize money players can claim from professional tournaments.
Ahead of this year's Wimbledon, Tarvet revealed that he can only earn $10,000 (£7,290) in profit every year, aside from the expenses he incurs during the events he plays at.
Article continues below
That means that he will have to offload most of the huge sum he has already banked, as well as any amount he will win if he can topple Alcaraz.
After beating Riedi, he joked that he would need to give his coaches a hefty pay rise as he now faces the task of finding tens of thousands of pounds in expenses.
"By December, I need to show that, like, profit or prize money minus expenses equals less than $10,000," said Tarvet.
‌
"I don't know how much I made. I think I made, like, it's £99,000 or £100,000. Obviously, that's before tax.
"I've got to find £60,000, £70,000 of expenses, which tennis is an expensive sport. So, hopefully, I can make that happen. Just pay my coaches a little bit extra. I don't know. We'll figure something out. Fly business class!"
Discussing the rule before his opening match, he said: 'There's been complaints about it but I don't want to speak too much about it, I don't want to overstep anything.
‌
'In my opinion, I've worked hard to get this money and I don't really feel like it's undeserved, the money that I've got. So I think it would be good to see a change in the rules.'
However, Tarvet also insisted: 'I'm not here for the money, I'm here for the crowds, the experience and to stamp my mark on the ATP circuit.
'You work for these type of moments - it's a dream come true to play at Wimbledon, it's really special.'
‌
The St Albans-born star has never played in front of more than 800 spectators before, but will walk out in front of nearly 15,000 fans on Centre Court on Wednesday.
"As a kid, it's what you dream of and work for," said Tarvet. "But for it to happen so suddenly is really special. For me, though, nothing has really changed.
"I'm quietly confident that I can win against anyone and Alcaraz is no exception to that. Obviously, he's done an incredible amount in the tennis world. He's a difficult guy not to respect.
Article continues below
"But I've got to just go out there and treat it like another match, play the ball, not the player, even if it is going to be pretty special."