What’s with all the tennis grunting? I simply cannot stand those awful screams that are literally ruining good tennis matches.
If I wanted to listen to that sort of screeching I’d watch my kids playing or switch on that Pay TV channel that broadcasts Question Time in Federal Parliament.
Watching Maria Sharapova’s first round whitewash of Olga Puchkova the other day was like an hour-long session of fingernails scraping ever so slowly down a blackboard. It was simply excruciating and completely distracted from Sharapova’s devastatingly brilliant ground strokes.
I can’t remember any of those great shots but the screeching is still ringing in my ears days later, a bit like a Tony Abbott speech on feminism.
So why do players grunt? Bjorn Borg never needed it and neither did Margaret Court.
Yet some players can’t get through a game without sounding like a scratched record on steroids.
They seem to think it helps them psychologically or puts off their opponents. But many champions have won without screaming the house down and the tactic is now so passe that surely other players have got used to it.
The likes of Sharapova, whose grunts have been measured at 101 decibels, would win regardless.
Full-throttle grunting makes tennis almost impossible to watch without wanting to smash the TV. It’s almost as infuriating as those “woman of now” Kia ads; please don’t get me started on her.
Why hasn’t anyone done anything about it? (The grunting that is, although I’d also love to throttle that Kia woman).
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think anyone needs to make noises on a tennis court that wouldn’t be out of place in a Freddie Kreuger movie.
Their tennis should speak for itself.
For that reason, I probably won’t bother to switch on when Sharapova plays Ekaterina Makarova in today’s quarter final.
I’ll probably take the kids to Chadstone for some relative peace and quiet.
Cheryl Critchley is on twitter: @CherylCritchley
I haven’t watched a game of women’s tennis for years unless the William’s sisters or Sam Stosur are playing.
Happily at least one of them gets through the the last weekend.
I don’t mind watching women play, The Wrap, it’s just the grunting I can’t stand. Maybe I should just turn the sound down :-)
This has ruined (mainly women’s) tennis since Monica Seles arrived on the scene about 25 years ago. It is being incorporated by some players as a deliberate ploy to put opponents off.
There are many viewers who complain about it each year but nothing gets done. Just wait until Azarenka plays Sharapova.
There just need to be rules introduced to place a penalty on that activity. You get a warning and if it continues the game is defaulted. It will soon disappear if it were enforced.
Unfortunately the tennis authorities are not brave enough implement such changes. Tennis is a sexy sport in exactly the same way that Greco-Roman wrestling isn’t. If you take out the flair, fashion and personalities you basically just have two people hitting a ball back and forward at each other. The same thing happens in table tennis but nobody cares about that – it’s just not sexy. It appears that those in command see the screaming as part of the attraction and charisma of of the game.
Advantage Screech
Agree aussie80s but as you say it seems no-one has the guts to do anything about it. I simply cannot watch a game with all that grunting.
I find a lot of the stuff Margaret Court says these days a lot more irritating than any Sharapova grunt.
Francesca Schiavone has an interesting two-note grunt – kind of high-low. However I noticed at the Hopman Cup that the noise she made on her serve sounded a lot like F#CK! Luckily she was knocked out in the first round of the Open saving us all from offence..
Hi Les. I agree re the religious extremism but at least Margaret Court doesn’t scream with a high-pitched should when she talks :-)
Roger doesn’t grunt, Nadal however… lol
The ones that grunt make me wonder when else they’ll grunt and how their poor neighbours handle it when they do
I have boycotted Sharapova’s and Azarenka’s matches for ages now due to the continuous grunting and shreiking. It is appalling, and I reckon would be extremely off-putting for an opponent. Which, I guess, is the whole idea.
Interestingly, I did read that Sharapova does not shreik when practising?
As for the authorities…it seems a lot like the ICC’s approach to “chucking”….close your eyes and hope it goes away.
Don’t get me started on the Chuckers Smokie! That’s another elephant in the room. I reckon half the 20/20 bowlers chuck.
Warne makes me chuck.
I watched Sharapova for 5 minutes a couple of days ago and found myself rooting for her opponent very strongly. Could not stand it!!
As an aside, I wonder what the authorities would do if a tennis player started yelling out an actual word every time they hit the ball. Same volume, same length but a word rather than a grunt. Would they view it differently? Would it depend on the word?
On a slight tangent, I wonder how a tennis player with tourettes would go.
Whilst out walking the other night i walked passed a house and thought there was some interesting love making going. Realised that this was not the case when I got home put on the TV and saw that there was a Womens singles match on.
Ban it. take points off and it will stop in a heartbeat.
There is no grunting in Women’s tennis. There never has been, it’s just a media beat-up. If I hear you make such accusations again my team of lawyers will act on my instructions.
Yours sincerely, Lance.
It’s interesting to see aussie80’s point re Monica Seles and grunting. I can’t recall the ‘olden days’ players like Rosie Casal, Evonne Goolagong, Betty Stove, Renata Tomanova, Dianne Fromholtz, etc, being grunters. It really has only come on in the last 20, or so, years. Thus if we aren’t happy with this trait, simply do the following if you’re watching TV. Use the mute button. That way there’s not just no grunting, you can also bypass the inane commentary .
Glen1
I reckon that Hewitt is OK as a commentator though although I realise that this “thread” is about the women grunting and wailing and as one observer pointed out saying”fxck”. Does nothing for me, well actually it does, like every one else I wonder with increasing irritation how they get away with it. I just wish the crowd would take them off, every one would die laughing I reckon and better yet it might put a stop to this nonsense. As for adds, the “he’s a Steggler” is the one that gives me the irrits most.
Maria Sharapova monsters the minnows and then capitulates as soon as she has some serious competition. She’s just a flat chest bully.
I’m just glad we don’t have to listen to that grunting any more. It’s more infuriating every time I watch it. They really need to do something about it or women’s tennis, which already has a credibility crisis, will be seen by many as even more of a joke.
Li Na did us a favour on one side of the draw.
After the 9th game of the second set in the other semi (which was riveting and brilliant), I thought Sloane Stephens was a chance to do us another.
Then Azarenka pulled that injury stunt! As if her grunting was not enough. What a joke!
I stopped watching women’s tennis years ago because of the grunting and shrieking. It’s a complete turn off. A few years ago I wrote a song parody- ‘HOW DO YOU STOP THE GRUNTING OF MARIA’ . It went something like …..
How do you stop the grunting of Maria
How do say please turn the volume down
How do you stop the grunting of Maria
It shatters the night , gives kiddies a fright, it’s LOUD!
How do you stop the grunting of Maria
How do you say ‘”Quiet please” in Russian?….
I wonder if a noise pollution meter could be installed and a penalty applied(perhaps loss of a point) when the grunt reaches a certain decibel. I’m sure someone could install and monitor a gadget for that . It would also give the commentators something else to become experts on. But then, the network might have to pay them overtime for a Sharapova match.
Great song Pamela and great idea. It beats me why they don’t do something about it as it’s clearly putting people off. It’s a good case of not having the guts to tackle an issue, which then just gets worse.
Well, 12 years after this article has been written, the grunting is probably worse. I have noticed more men are grunting more than ever and Sharapova was an absolute angel as far as her grunting was concerned compared to Sabalenka, the number 1 female tennis player in the world, with the loudest grunt I have ever heard.
Yet, nowadays the opposition and the commentators don’t appear to complain about the grunting because more tennis players appear to be grunting more than ever before. It’s a bit like Lleyton Hewitt was the first player to yell “Come On” after a point and nowadays both male and female tennis players are yelling “Come On” more than ever. They also conduct the crowd to cheer louder for them, if they know they have the crowd support.
Perhaps I am also biased with the grunting because both Maria Sharapova and Monica Seles were favourite players of mine. Sharapova was brilliant in winning 5 Grand Slam singles titles and won every Grand Slam single title on every surface, in an era when she had to face Serena Williams in many Grand Slam singles finals.
I was also a massive fan of Monica Seles and was in the crowd when she won 3 Grand Slam singles titles in a row at the Australian Open from 1991-93. She changed the game the way she played and was the first female player to really hit the ball hard. To get 8 Grand Slam singles titles by the age of 19 was absolutely sensational. It was an absolute tragedy that she was stabbed by a crazed German fan in 1993, yet she still won another Australian Open in 1996. She had the wood on Graf before the stabbing and imagine how many Grand Slam singles titles Monica Seles would have won, had she not been stabbed.
Unfortunately, nothing seems to be done regarding poorer crowd behaviour as in cheering for double faults and making noise between first and second serves. Perhaps the offenders should be evicted from watching those matches, in order to send a message.
What annoys me much more than the grunting is commentators who have voices I dislike, as well as poor grammar and diction and speaking too quickly. This applies to commentators in tennis, cricket and football.