At one minute past 9 o’clock last night, a marvellous orange sun was setting over Wimbledon and, simultaneously, the singles hopes of Sam Warburg, a rather charming journalism graduate from Stanford University, California. Warburg is an unusual soul in the locker-room because he came to the game late and has a diversity of interests. Last night he was beaten in straight sets by Florian Mayer, who does not.

Readers of this series will know that we have been following a path from the qualifying tournament at the Bank of England club in Roehampton last week. First came James May, the spirited, limited Brit, then his conqueror, Warburg. And now we move on to Mayer.

The German is fascinating because we have gone from the Warburg extreme to the other. Does it take a man of the world to succeed among the elite, or a man blinkered to the world and focused solely on his craft? The way the story turned last night, the answer is shifting hard towards the latter.

The people of Bayreuth, Bavaria, may find this interesting because until three years ago, their link to international acclaim was through Wagner, who spent the later years of his life there and has his operas performed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus every summer.

Then, three years ago, they woke to another “famous son” – Mayer, who was 20, little known and, all of a sudden, in the Wimbledon quarter-finals. One might have thought that Mayer would be proud to share his home city with such a celebrated fellow artist, but in the glorious aftermath of his win last night, he could not have made it clearer that he does not. “I am not interested in this stuff,” he said of Wagner. “You can pay me $10,000 and I would not go to it.”

Even when presented with the following hypothetical offer – would you sit through a performance of Wagner if it meant you were guaranteed to win the Wimbledon singles? – he had to pause for thought.

The point about Mayer, though, is not that he dislikes Wagner, but that he does not like music full stop. He likes PlayStation. Enough said. But if this sounds as though the Neanderthal gene has been hard at work within, consider what he wants you to consider: his tennis. Because there is an artistic temperament at work here.

Mayer plays an idiosyncratic game: a forehand with a huge backswing, clever slices and improbable backhand drops. It was this that marked his unexpected rise here three years ago, although another surprise was that, contrary to expectation, he failed to build on that success. Indeed, as career highlights go, that remains the one.

It got to the stage in Paris last month when he bemoaned his craft. He explained that he was not enjoying it any more and said that without pleasure, he could not perform. Pleasure inspired his art, he ventured, and for those who listened and knew him to be a PlayStation kid, it seemed a little unreasonable.

But here we were, back at Wimbledon yesterday, and the artist in him resurfaced. “It’s been the same for three years,” he said. “In April and May I always play bad tennis and I don’t know why. But here? I just have so much fun here.

“It’s once a year when I’m always so happy to be on the court. I can’t explain why. I am a player who needs fun. I like to mix up my slice with everything and if I don’t have fun, it’s tough for me to motivate.”

So that was what did for Warburg: beaten 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 by a man with a hard heart, but who is inspired nevertheless by this inexplicable romance with Wimbledon.

Road to SW19

Qualifying event

Monday, June 18

James May (GB) bt Lukas Lacko (Slovakia) 6-4, 6-3

Tuesday, June 19

Sam Warburg (US) bt May 6-3, 6-4

Thursday, June 21

Warburg bt Kevin Kim (US) 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-1

First round

Yesterday

Florian Mayer (Ger) bt Warburg 6-4, 6-2, 6-2

Second round

Mayer v J Nieminen (Fin)