In what is one of the most well-covered stories of Wimbledon this year, Oliver Tarvet might have found a loophole to finally claim his prize money.
The British qualifier, who is the lowest-ranked player in the entire main draw, has been one of The Championships’ fairytale stories thus far, with the run now continuing into round two.
He shocked many by overcoming his opening-round opponent, Leandro Rieidi, in a comfortable three-set clash where he did not face a single break point.
And, in reaching the second round, would usually be owed just shy of £100k in prize money.
Alas, he cannot claim it, unless he does one thing before the December deadline…
Oliver Tarvet explains Wimbledon prize money workaround
Speaking about his run, Tarvet was asked whether he planned to turn professional after such a stunning few weeks.
However, he admitted he still has plans to return to America to finish college, boasting another sneaky workaround to ensure he is remunerated from his Wimbledon run.
The 21-year-old claimed: ‘You know, obviously I’ve got to try and stay humble, but yeah, obviously a big, big goal of mine is to come back [to college] in January and to retain my eligibility.
‘So, you know, either I don’t see the prize money, if we can’t figure things out financially, but, you know, I hope to the prize money and then use that money as expenses.
‘So, you know, I will try and do everything that I can to make that work out and to find X amount of expenses so I’m under $10,000 of profit. So, yeah, that’s, you know, something I’ve got to figure out, and maybe I hire someone to help me out with those expenses and make sure the NCAA are happy. As I said, very important to me, I have a lot of goals at USD still, so yeah.
‘So by December, I need to show that, like profit of prize money, minus expenses equals less than $10,000. So I don’t know how much I’m adding a made, like, I think it’s £99,000, isn’t it, something like that, 100,000 pounds, obviously, that’s before tax, and I’ve got to find $60,000, £70,000 of expenses, which… tennis is an expensive sport so hopefully I can make that happen.
‘You know, like, just pay my coaches a little bit extra, I don’t… We’ll figure something out, you know, fly business class [laughs]. Obviously, you know, I keep humble.’
Tarvet has risen over 300 places in the world rankings with his run, so has seen other benefits.
Why can’t Oliver Tarvet claim his Wimbledon prize money?
Tarvet may be owed nearly £100k for his Wimbledon performance, but there is a clear reason why he cannot claim it.
He is not a professional tennis player.
Whilst that might seem ludicrous to state, given that he has beaten four professionals just to reach the second round, it’s worth remembering that he is still in American college.
As such, he is classed as an amateur, despite training and acting like a pro.
Not to mention that NCAA regulations restrict college athletes to claiming just $10,000 in expenses, further restricting his potential cash flow.
