Wimbledon qualifiers: For once, a Plucky Brit doesn’t fall at the last

Photographs by Andy Hall for The Observer

The end could not have been more emphatic. At match-point in the fourth set, Oliver Tarvet struck an ace that landed flush on the outside service line, sending up a puff of chalk, and tossed his racket high into the sky. The world No 719 had qualified for Wimbledon.

Tarvet, a 21-year-old from St Albans, was too lowly ranked for a wild card so the British No 33 faced three preliminary matches, as they have been doing in Roehampton for exactly a century. He was not given much hope. A Plucky Brit, destined to stumble.At the start of his last match against Alexander Blockx, a bare-armed Belgian ranked 575 places higher, his noisiest support was American. “Come on Tarvos,” cried a student from the University of San Diego where Tarvet is in his third year. “Go Line One,” she added, referring to his place on the college team. He is at least the best Brit in San Diego.

Line One took the first set 6-3, then lost the next. Typical Plucky Brit. But then he won four games in a row and led 5-2. Inevitably it began to rain, drizzle rapidly turning into squall as the spectators at the Bank of England sports ground dashed for cover. Ironically, Radiohead was playing over the speakers as they watched it bucket down. “Don’t leave me dryyyyyy…”

Play resumed after an hour and surely Tarvet's pluck would run out. But he won the next six games, his slow slice an asset in the swirling wind, and suddenly he was through. There were no great riches – as a college amateur he can claim only £7,300 of the £66,000 prize money for reaching the first round – but a place in the main draw, where he was paired with fellow qualifier Leandro Riedi from Switzerland, was priceless. Win that and Tarvet will probably be playing defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round on Centre Court.

It is 3.7 miles from Bank Lane, Roehampton, to Church Road, Wimbledon, but the gap is immense. The All England Club wants to bring it all together on one site but the difference from the qualifying event, where 18 courts are laid on the outfield of a cricket pitch, makes the offered prize seem even more special. For some it is a springboard: John McEnroe famously reached the semi-finals as a teenage qualifier in 1977. For others it brings a full stop. Marton Fucscovics had missed an automatic spot by one ranking place. In 2010, he was the boys’ champion and in 2021 beat Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev to reach the quarter-finals. Now the 33-year-old Hungarian was out on court 17, midwicket when it returns to cricket, smashing his racket and losing to the world No 163 as what smelt like baked beans wafted over his despair from the nearby food court.

Another former Wimbledon quarter-finalist was also in trouble. Cristian Garin, a Chilean with thighs the size of hams, has played Novak Djokovic on Centre Court. Now he was on Court 4 (deep extra cover), watched by three dozen sitting on a parched bank. After racing through the first set, he lost to Giulio Zeppieri, the world No 353, in five.

This year, for the first time, all line calls are made by computer in a variety of voices, some rather tinny, and judged by cameras up poles. I’m sure that in a former career one of these robo-judges gave me a parking fine at Aldi. Garin challenged one call and was shown that it was indeed out by the width of a blade of grass.

Other ageing hopes turned to dust. Alizé Cornet, who beat Serena Williams on Centre Court in 2014 and had been the world No 11, failed to reach a 17th Wimbledon, losing to a 22-year-old. Poor Dusan Lajovic, a 34-year-old Serb who was once world No 23, won his opening set against another nipper, then tumbled over the net as he chased a drop-shot. As he lay prone, an ice pack on his neck, he must have considered withdrawing but this could have been his last time. He played on and lost in four.

Youth did not always have its way: Victoria Mboko, an 18-year-old Canadian who reached this year’s third round at Roland Garros, and Emerson Jones, a 16-year-old Australian who was junior No 1, must wait another year for their main-draw debut. And there was cheer for oldies in 36-year-old Shuai Zhang, another former quarter-finalist. The Chinese woman recently had 23 successive defeats but is now back at Wimbledon. As the sign by Centre Court advises: treat triumph and disaster just the same.