Opponent loses heart following tense event in the Supreme Court? (5)
I believe the answer is:
trial
'event in the supreme court?' is the definition.
(the Supreme Court oversees trials)
'opponent loses heart following tense' is the wordplay.
'opponent' becomes 'rival' (I've seen this before).
'loses heart' means to remove the middle letters (I've seen 'losing heart' mean this).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'rival' with its centre taken out is 'rial'.
'rial' put after 't' is 'TRIAL'.
(Other definitions for trial that I've seen before include "Troublesome thing; test" , "Legal proceedings or a test run" , "Test to determine guilt or innocence" , "Hearing - difficulty" , "Suffering - litigation" .)