Toreros Are Wimbledon Winners

The morning of his second-round match at Wimbledon on Centre Court against the second-ranked player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz, Oliver Tarvet from the San Diego men’s tennis team ate breakfast in his hotel like any other road match day. His Torero head coach on the trip with him, Ryan Keckley, admittedly a little caffeinated at this point in the morning, came up to his star pupil and exclaimed excitedly, “C’mon Ollie, match day, let’s go!” Tarvet calmly responded with a smile, “Settle down, Kecks. Settle down.”

There was no reason for Tarvet to feel anything but tranquil at this point on his historic journey at the world-famous tennis tournament, despite the tall task ahead of him that day. A native of St. Albans, England, Tarvet already exceeded expectations in his home country by winning three matches to advance from the qualifying draw to the main draw and claimed another victory in the first round of the main draw. He captured the attention of his countrymen, became a British media luminary and most importantly to him, made his USD program proud. 

The epic journey ended in the second round against Alcaraz, but it wouldn’t be fair to call that match a loss as much it should be labeled a “to be continued” bookmark. 

“It was a dream come true to play in the event that you went to as a kid,” Tarvet said. “It was special having the home support from my friends and family come out. As special as it was, there was a decent amount of pressure, but I felt I did a good job of controlling those nerves and focusing on just playing tennis. At the end of the day, nothing changes from a tennis perspective. I kept that in mind. It’s easy to let the moment get too big.”

Normally a fan favorite wherever he plays, the tables were turned on Alcaraz when he went toe-to-toe with Tarvet. In addition to his friends and family in attendance, Tarvet was England’s own compared to Alcaraz who hails from Spain. Most of the fans in attendance were rooting for Ollie that day. Tarvet and his Torero teammate and alum August Holmgren were the Cinderella story of the tournament for each of their runs in the field and both coming from the same collegiate program in the United States. 

Although Alcaraz got the better of Tarvet that day, Alcaraz gave Keckley and USD assistant coach Alex Funkhouser a thumbs up at their coaching box after the match, and he told national media afterwards he was looking forward to seeing Tarvet again someday. 

Keckley recalls telling Tarvet before his match against Alcaraz to just be himself and see where the chips land.

“The first game, Ollie has break point,” Keckley said. “I was thinking, ‘If Ollie gets this break, this crowd is going to go berserk.’ He didn’t end up getting it, but right then and there, we knew he could compete. We knew the first set would be the hardest because of the stage and the environment. You walk out in front of 12,000 screaming fans, you don’t know where to look or put your hands. It’s going to take some time to adjust. He did a phenomenal job in every set and he had some opportunities.”

The wild Wimbledon ride started a bit chaotically for Tarvet. After competing in back-to-back ITF World Tennis Tour events on campus, winning one before retiring in the semifinals of the second, Mark Hilton, a national coach for the Lawn Tennis Association, notified Tarvet that while he couldn’t officially confirm anything yet, the chances were strong Tarvet would receive a wildcard bid into the qualifying draw and that he should pack his bags and buy a plane ticket for England. 

A wildcard entry into Wimbledon can be obtained if tournament organizers deem a player to be a promising young talent who wouldn’t qualify based off their world ranking but are still deserving of an entry. 

Needless to say, Tarvet moved swiftly the next day. In the span of 24 hours, he booked a flight, packed his bags, got his rackets ready, among many other tasks. His name was officially announced four days before the qualifying draw started. 

Each of the three opponents he defeated in the qualifying draw were either currently ranked or had recently been ranked in the top 200 in the world. Prior to this tournament, Tarvet had never played an opponent ranked higher than No. 367 in a professional match. At the time of the tournament, Tarvet ranked No. 733. Following the tournament, he shot up over 300 spots to 402.

What helped Tarvet initially feel more at ease was he didn’t have any preconceived notions about the competition heading into the qualifying draw. He didn’t know much about the other participants and hadn’t really watched them play before. As a result, he felt relaxed and comfortable heading into the qualifying draw. 

“Something I say to myself all the time is ‘Play the ball and not the player,” he said. “Especially against Alcaraz, I tried to tell myself that because it’s very easy to overplay with the success that he has had. I can’t play differently based on the player. I have to stick to what I would normally do regardless of who I’m playing, whether he's ranked second in the world or 500.”

Keckley called the week for Tarvet monumental for him between the preparation, effort and the way in which he carried himself through all the pressure. But Keckley knows his star student-athlete well, and he wasn’t surprised with the end results. 

“He handled the moment so well, like he’s been there before,” Keckley said. “He’s playing against one of the top two players in the world currently and he handled that stage like he’s been there before. It says a lot about him and the way he conducts his day-to-day routines and his professionalism to this sport. In my opinion, it’s a perfect example of preparation meets opportunity. He was exceptionally prepared for the moment.” 

One of the most dominant NCAA men’s tennis student-athletes during the 2024-25 season, Tarvet ranked in the top 10 in singles nationally all year, ending the campaign ranked No. 5 in the ITA. Collecting multiple All-America honors, Tarvet became a two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2025 and he led the Toreros to a conference championship before USD hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. 

Holmgren, who competed for the Toreros from 2018-22 and compiled an impressive list of accolades in collegiate tennis in his own right, deserved plenty of kudos for his run in Wimbledon, as well. Going through the qualifying draw, like Tarvet, Holmgren advanced to the third round. In addition to the USD success stories, Pacific alum Sem Verbeek won the Mixed Doubles Championship giving the West Coast Conference even more strong representation.

Following his main draw first-round victory over Leandro Riedi of Switzerland, Tarvet immediately went over and put his USD hat on in front of the cameras. Never mind his own personal success, showing love for his Torero program is always first thing on his mind. 

Keckley said he felt extremely proud to see how much Tarvet and Holmgren are “team guys” and how much they continue to bleed for the USD program. That passion was on full display at Wimbledon. 

“USD has done an incredible amount for me and I owe a lot of my success to them,” Tarvet said. “The dedication and devotion that the coaches have given me, they’ve been great to me. They aren’t just great tennis coaches, but they’re great life coaches. They’ve helped me become a better person, which is equally as important. I’ve really excelled here and I probably wouldn’t have been as successful at other places. And not only them, but all my teammates are great; they’re my brothers. I have a great relationship with every one of them. We pride ourselves on having a great culture and a healthy environment.”

The feeling is mutual for Keckley.

“I thanked him for being such a strong advocate for this university and for this program,” Keckley said. “He knows how much we’ve done for him and we know how much he’s done for us. It’s mutually beneficial. We talk a lot in our program about gratitude and giving back. That was uncoached. We weren’t even prepared for him winning his last match in the qualifying draw. We weren’t prepared for that kind of media coverage, but I thought he did such an exceptional job, not only with his tennis but how he handled the media. The British tabloids were just swarming all over him. He became a household name overnight. There was a lot of publicity around the program with these two guys and he was very humble and very grateful.” 

Tarvet’s run proves that he belongs among the best in the world, which isn’t shocking to Keckley as he is a major advocate that NCAA tennis year in and year out produces some of the best players in the world. He’d like to see this run inspire the current Toreros to feel like they match up with anybody as they look for another memorable run in the coming season.