Tarvet's Wimbledon journey ends with Alcaraz lesson in mental toughness

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