Trailing 6-5 in the deciding set of her Wimbledon semi-final, Donna Vekic turned to her player box and burst into tears.
Vekic had just seen multiple break point opportunities fall by the wayside and then her opponent Jasmine Paolini successfully challenged her shot – which turned out to be 3mm wide – to take the lead.
While Paolini smiled gleefully on her way to her chair for the change of ends, Vekic sobbed into her towel. She managed to regroup though, holding serve to force a tie-break before she lost by the tightest of margins 2-6, 6-4, 7-6.
It was a brutal finish to Vekic’s wonderful run at Wimbledon. It also brought into sharp focus – not for the first time this fortnight – the question of whether tears of despair can actually bring success for athletes or not.
We saw similar from Harriet Dart last week at the All England Club except, unlike Vekic, she made an inspired comeback against Katie Boulter after weeping during the deciding set tie-break at 6-2 down.
In football, Cristiano Ronaldo made headlines around the world just last week too, after he descended into frantic, inconsolable crying upon missing a penalty in Portugal’s Euros quarterfinal. Portugal lost in a penalty shootout to France in the end, but Ronaldo still found a way to hold his nerve and score his second spot-kick of the night.
The image of an athlete crying during a competitive fixture is jarring for viewers simply because we often hold up their achievements and ability as superhuman.
And some athletes do appear more robotic than others. Vekic’s open emotion on Thursday massively contrasted with the implacable semi-finalists Barbora Krejcikova and Elena Rybakina, who followed immediately afterwards on Centre Court – although even Krejcikova surprised fans with a post-match cry.
But every elite athlete has to contend with extreme highs and lows. The question is whether mid-match tears actually help or hinder performance? Sports psychologist Dr Misia Gervis, who has previously worked with England internationals at the Football Association, says it all depends on whether the athlete is usually a cryer or not.
“We’re all wired differently when it comes to crying: for people who cry easily, it can be helpful or cathartic, for someone who doesn’t, it can disrupt them,” Gervis says. “If you compare Ronaldo to the famous Gazza [Paul Gascoigne] tears, he’s an emotional live wire in a way that Ronaldo absolutely is not. I think that’s where the surprise came in for people watching Ronaldo.”
Vekic meanwhile has been showing her emotion throughout this tournament. Her tears of joy are usually reserved for the moment of victory, but the semi-final was unknown territory for the 28-year-old.
This was her first ever grand slam semi-final in 43 attempts. Her career has been blighted by injuries, she even nearly quit tennis just a few weeks ago, and the pressure of that context might have won out in the dying moments of her match against Paolini. She also said the physical toll of this tournament – where she played five three-set matches – impacted her emotional state.
“I mean, sometimes it can help,” a distraught Vekic told reporters of crying on court. “My tears were not because… I don’t know. I was more crying because I had so much pain, I didn’t know how I could keep playing.”
Dart said her tears were reflective, as coming so close to defeat made her consider all the hard work she was about to waste. “It’s not just about on that court in that moment, it’s everything that goes before the match, months, years of the work that you put in,” Dart said. “I just wanted it really, really badly.”
Gervis agrees with this sentiment, that tears are shed when looking back or worrying about a future outcome. It is dangerous territory for athletes that often aim to live firmly in the present moment.
“Crying for me shows they’re not in the present moment anymore – they’re either in the future or the past,” Gervis says. “We only cry about things that have happened or we think might happen. So in the moment in a tennis match, the present is the shot you’re about to play, but if you’re overwhelmed with crying it means you’re caught up in an emotional tsunami. Sometimes that can pass with crying. You let it out, and it’s gone and now you’re back to work. But sometimes it’s despair and we feel heaviness, and then it takes over performance.”
The difference between Ronaldo and Vekic or Dart is that he had a team around him to support: “As a tennis player it’s a lonely old place – you’re more vulnerable and exposed,” Gervis adds.
Another major element is the opponent’s reaction. While Ronaldo won his second stare-down with the goalkeeper in his case, and Dart rattled Boulter post-tears, other opponents might pounce on that supposed show of emotional frailty.
“We look at athletes as superhuman, so I think it’s really brave to cry as no one wants to cry in public spaces do they?” Gervis says. “But their opponents in particular might think, great, I’ve got you. Elite athletes are pretty ruthless.”
That proved the case on Thursday, as Paolini’s infectious smile and energy on Centre ultimately won out – just. For Vekic, it ended in tears.