Did Maria Sharapova crash out of Wimbledon because she's in love? Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty ImagesThis year's Wimbledon has already provided surprising upsets, with some of the best known players knocked out in early rounds. Amid all the talk of injuries and unforced errors, are the pundits missing another possible culprit? Could love to be blame?
Former player Annabel Croft seems to think so. In a recent article she raised the possibility that Maria Sharapova crashed out because she's in love. Her partner Grigor Dimitrov has also gone, as has Serena Williams, whose love affair with her coach is likewise in full bloom.
But why would being in love or starting a new relationship affect your sporting performance? Is there some science behind the romance?
Physical attraction to someone typically prompts the brain to release noradrenaline, a chemical that causes an increase in heart rate, in much the same way that physical exercise does. This is fine for an average person, but for professional athletes? Their heart rate is raised via exertion all the time and they could end up being overtaxed by the presence of a loved one. It might be like someone constantly revving the engine of a luxury sports car while it's sat on the driveway.
Another consequence of the release of noradrenaline, as well as other monoamine transmitters, is increased sweating, particularly on the palms. When your job involves swinging a racket at alarming speeds, anything that affects your grip could be crucial.
Being a world-class athlete also requires focus, and this is helped by having good eyesight. Tennis involves a lot of standing in bright light and tracking a small yellow sphere travelling at high speeds, so the fact that being in love causes the release of dopamine that (among other things) causes pupils to dilate could make play just that bit trickier.
Another neurotransmitter released when you're infatuated with someone is serotonin, which is closely linked with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some argue that this explains why, when you start an intense relationship, your lover is constantly in your thoughts. People claim to see their partner's face wherever they go, in reflections and the shape of clouds. Perhaps they're even seeing it on the ball? When you're in a new relationship and you're imagining your partner's face, your first instinct won't be to smash it as hard as you can with a racket. Going all gooey at the thought of your loved one could easily dull the killer instincts of a professional athlete.
Strong emotions often lead to more potent memories thanks to the amygdala, the part of the temporal lobe that encodes the emotional resonance of experiences. Memories associated with a new lover would likely end up being far more potent than normal ones, and even the slightest cue can lead to a spell of reminiscing. A tennis match is one of the worst places for this sort of thing, with all the mentions of "love" and "court"-ing. And that's without the sweating and grunting to prompt recall of the more physical elements of a new relationship.
So there are many reasons why being in love can throw you off your game. It's obviously more complex than this of course, but it's something for the pundits to ponder. I'm certainly going to use the excuse of being in a happy relationship to deflect accusations of sloppy writing. Luckily for me (or not) there isn't ￡1.6m riding on it.
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