What Wimbledon taught me about pressure - and the cross

The first two weeks in July make up the best fortnight of the year for British tennis fans. The sun is (hopefully) shining, the barbecues are sizzling and most importantly, Wimbledon is plastered all over the nation’s top two TV channels.

What a Wimbledon it has been so far. At the time of writing, a record-equalling number of seeds have fallen in the first couple of days, others have barely survived, while several of the favourites remain on course to provide blockbuster entertainment in the latter stages.

Included in the storylines are the elimination of all bar one of the top five women’s seeds in the first round, for just the second time ever in the Open Era. Meanwhile, the men’s draw has lost four of its top ten favourites.

However, amid all the unusual storylines, some things stay the time - like the emotional rollercoaster the British public subject themselves to, passionately supporting every Brit who appears on their screens (despite most only watching tennis for two weeks each year).

Too much pressure to bear?

The raucous support which British players receive has been the subject of much debate, with many believing it inspires greater results, but others considering it a huge burden for our top stars to carry, often proving too much to bear.

The truth probably lies somewhere in-between, as history attests; Cameron Norrie and Johanna Konta recently outperformed their rankings to reach the semi-finals. Going further back, Tim Henman reached four of his six major semi-finals at Wimbledon, suggesting he performed best at home where he felt the love as Henmania annually took hold.

However, others have found the pressure more suffocating. Jack Draper struggled to deal with the hype of becoming the British men’s number one last year, performing poorly and going down to out-of-form compatriot Norrie in round two. During Emma Raducanu’s breakout run back in 2021, she soared through the first week, before she was forced to withdraw due to sudden breathing difficulties. Former British number one Katie Boulter has often used the crowd to her advantage as an underdog but disappointed against lower-ranked opponents.

Such hype can be a source of serious momentum but can also weigh heavily on the athletically chiselled shoulders of our best players, causing many to crumble underneath it.

While the pressure of home expectation undoubtedly worked to Murray’s good after he eventually won the crowd over (he said the crowd’s support made it “so much easier to play” after losing the 2012 Wimbledon final), he has also admitted that he could not remember parts of his first Wimbledon title win and did not enjoy it as much as he should have due to a greater sense of relief than joy, highlighting just how heavily the pressure weighs on even the very best.

A more unbearable weight

When we consider the impact that the weight of expectation has on Britain’s best tennis players, only for most to falter, how wonderful is it, in a more spiritual sense, to be able to look at Jesus who was faced with the unimaginable weight of the world’s sin, and delivered in full?

While we see the fallibility of our humanity perfectly illustrated in how our nation’s tennis players handle sporting pressure, how thankful should we be that we have a Saviour who took on all of our sin, knowing that the fate of our eternity lay on His shoulders, and defeated death to crown us with life.

Let’s remember to be eternally grateful that in the middle of our inevitable human disappointment, we can look to Jesus who took on all of the pressure and all of the responsibility and did not disappoint but delivered in full. Now what about that for a source of true inspiration!