 "Oliver Tarvet beat Leandro Riedi in first round at Wimbledon to clinch £99,000 prize money. Image: Reuters")
British tennis player Oliver Tarvet is set for a dream match at Wimbledon 2025 against the defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, on Wednesday. Tarvet, who is ranked No.733, set up a match against the five-time Grand Slam winner, Alcaraz, by beating Leandro Riedi, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on the opening day of the tournament.
While the 21-year-old Tarvet is not seen as the favourite to win against Alcaraz, he could be happy that his win over Riedi earned him £99,000 in prize money. Beating Alcaraz will earn him £153,000.
But Tarvet won’t be taking home such a big amount due to a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rule.
Why won’t Oliver Tarvet get Wimbledon mega prize money?
Travet is currently studying at the University of San Diego and developed his game under the NCAA system. But this also means following some rules. As per the NCAA rules, players can only claim a limited amount of prize money from professional tournaments.
Tarvet had revealed before the start of Wimbledon 2025 that he can only earn $10,000 (£7,290) in profit every year, besides the expenses incurred during the events. This means Tarvet will have to forfeit the £99,000 prize money he earned by reaching the second round of Wimbledon 2025.
“There’s been complaints about it but I don’t want to speak too much about it, I don’t want to overstep anything,” Tarvet said before the match against Riedi. “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.”
Tarvet has become the first British man to qualify for Wimbledon since Alexander Ward in 2017. He secured his spot in the main draw with a straight-sets win over Terence Atmane, followed by a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Canada’s Alexis Galarneau, and a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 triumph over 29th seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium.