Grunters Unite!
Some players have a signature move. Maybe it is their backhand. Or the way they serve. How they come into the net or their drop shots.
For some, their signature isn’t a move, it’s a grunt.
Linda Pearce reported on tennis grunters in The Age from Australia. Former Wimbledon finalist Judy Dalton has spoken up against the grunters of her sport and says she “would have been prepared to forfeit a match against the grunter par excellence, Maria Sharapova.”
That’s pretty stiff. I don’t really know how forfeiting a match gets you anywhere in stopping a grunter let alone winning tournaments. But Dalton has a point.
Sharapova’s shrieks have been estimated at 101.2 decibels - apparently the equivalent of a closeby police siren or the landing of a small aircraft. I would believe it…have you ever heard Sharapova’s wailings?
Former Australian great John Newcombe says it gives players who grunt an advantage as their opponents can’t hear the ball coming off the strings. The WTA has done next to nothing about the grunters of the sport - namely because the worst offenders are big stars: Sharapova and the Williams’ sisters.
The grunters’ defense is that the noise is involuntary. To that I can agree somewhat. There are times when I’m fully extended and putting my all into going after a ball or powering through a shot that I’ll get a little scream-o going during my game.
But at 101.2 decibels? That’s not an involuntary, natural grunt; that’s the outcome of training in an empty opera house for several years and working on dual concentration so you’re able to hit and shriek simultaneously.
Tags: grunting, Maria SharapovaRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Professional Tennis
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