At The Practice, we love a good sporting event and always seize the opportunity to fly the flag for our home-grown heroes. So naturally, our bumblebee eyes were out for Sunday’s Wimbledon final, flickering not just back and forth between opposing baselines, but also across multiple screens! 

During the match, Twitter was noticeably abuzz with sentiment, typically British witty remarks, and of course, countless Federer jibes. It can be quite intoxicating to commit yourself to Twitter involvement during such a National moment; there’s that bizarre element of camaraderie with strangers that’s oddly satisfying!

The singular problem, as other social media addicts like ourselves know only too well, is that focusing on both a platform such as Twitter as well as a national TV event like Wimbledon, increases one’s ‘fear of missing out’, otherwise known as ‘FOMO’.  With a fast-pace game on screen, it’s every tech geek’s worry that they’ll miss an important shot if their eyes briefly glance at a compelling tweet, and vice versa.

And there were indeed some lovely Twitter reactions to the afternoon’s proceedings.  During the game, there was a lot of commentary on both Murray’s and Federer’s respective techniques, but afterwards, a host of celebrated figures took to Twitter to join in the commiserations. One of Piers Morgan’s tweets in particular, seemed apt. He tweeted: ‘NEVER accuse Murray of being unemotional again. He gave it everything he’s got. Proud of him.’ Writer India Knight corroborated, telling her followers: ‘I’ve cheered up. Turning the entire country’s opinion of you around = huge win.’ And ever the comic, comedian Sue Perkins took to the site to tweet: ‘I really never thought it would be Andy Murray who’d break my ‘crying at sport’ cherry.’

Little did we know that our online reactions were being closely scrutinized, with some interesting results. Freeview’s British Pride Index, a new tool that monitors online reaction to sporting events across social media channels, along with partners Meltwater Buzz, tracked tweets, posts, blogs and videos. They subsequently arrived at a final calculation that sentiment for Murray on social media grew from -19 per cent to +41 per cent during the whole tournament, with a 27per cent growth following his defeat. With Twitter hashtags such as #didusallproud, there was definitely no shortage of shared sympathy.

We were however, surprised by the lack of rivalry and catty remarks. There was a little hostility to emerge from comedy duo Ant and Dec though, who tweeted: ‘Congrats Federer, masterful performance. Commiserations to Scotland’s Andy Murray. #toosoon?’ After an apparent amount of backlash though, they soon followed up with: ‘Previous tweet has gone down well north of the border…’

Ultimately, there wasn’t a truly negative word said about either player, and the amount of praise and support was overwhelming. So what does this tell us? To us, it tells us that social media unites and mobilizes. Regardless, if Twitter ceased to exist, we still wouldn’t fail to notice the shared understanding that even in defeat, Murray captured the nation’s hearts.

Did you get ‘socially’ involved during the Wimbledon Final? And do you think that Twitter has been tantamount to understanding fan response? Please let us hear your comments by following and tweeting to @PracticeDigital, and joining in on Facebook.