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Important SN update for SouthlandChamp ends British student's Wimbledon fairytale
Glenn Moore, AAP • July 3rd, 2025 8:00 am
Carlos Alcaraz (left) shakes hands with Oliver Tarvet after the British player's battling display | Photo: AP
There are students everywhere at Wimbledon. Serving in the restaurants, watering the plants, helping out in the media centre. It's a much sought-after summer job.
Among those working here is Oliver Tarvet from St Albans, an ancient town just north of London, who is back home for the holidays from the University of San Diego.
There he is majoring in communications, with a minor in marketing, and he will certainly have a story to tell and sell when he returns to California for his final year.
Tarvet, 21, has a different role to most students at Wimbledon. He's actually playing, and on Wednesday he found himself centre stage on Centre Court enjoying a fairytale beyond imagination.
The world No.733 was given a wildcard into qualifying, unexpectedly parlayed that into a main draw place, then won his opening round match against 117-ranked Leonardo Riedi to earn an encounter with defending champ and world No.2 Carlos Alacaraz on the sport's most famous court.
That's where the dream ended, the Spaniard winning 6-1 6-4 6-4, except it didn't, really. Tarvet winning nine games was some achievement, and one in which every point was roared on by the home crowd.
In the first set he forced eight break points, in the second he took one to go 2-0 up, repeating the feat to lead 3-2 in the third. Alcaraz, obviously, prevailed in the end but Tarvet looks to be a name to remember.
Next door on No.1 Court on Wednesday there was an upset home win. Former semi-finalist Cameron Norrie stunned American 12th seed Frances Tiafoe.
Cameron Norrie returns to Frances Tiafoe on his way to a four-set victory in the second round | Photo: AP
Norrie is now ranked 61, lost in the first round of both his warm-up events, and had never previously beaten a top-20 player at Wimbledon. But that mattered little as the British No.3 came back from losing the first set to win 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-5.
"I'm enjoying my tennis more than ever. It was really nice coming up to get into the top 10 but it's just tough, really tough, to stay there," Norrie said.
""It's nice to hunt the other guys. I was coming into the match today against Frances, being the underdog, playing for free.
"It was a lot easier than in the past when I previously played Frances. I was the highest seeded player, the pressure was on me."
Elsewhere rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca was overcome with emotion after beating Jenson Brooksby 6-4 5-7 6-2 6-4. The teenager was noisily supported by his compatriots as he became the first Brazilian man to reach the third round since Thomaz Bellucci in 2010.
"It's something to be proud of," said Fonseca, who is playing in his fourth tour-level event on grass. "I'm very happy the way that I've developed on this surface, I'm evolving. So I'm happy with it."
Russian seeds Andrey Rublev (14) and Karen Khachanov (17) both came back from dropping the opening set to win, defeating South African Lloyd Harris and Japan's Shintaro Mochizuki in four and five sets respectively.
