I must admit to having huge sympathy with Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur on the subject of women tennis players screaming and grunting loudly during matches.
Her comments came with two of the loudest grunters on tour, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, among the eight players at the season-ending tournament in Turkey.
Stosur said she was not bothered by the shrieking when on the court but believed the sound was “horrible” for spectators. Her coach had more to say:
“You can’t believe how many members of the general public come up to me and say ‘It is great that Sam won because she does not scream’.
“This is people that don’t know tennis, I think it is deeply unpleasant for a lot of people watching tennis.”
“I can see how it would be very unappealing to come and watch a match.
“It is silly screaming, it is after contact and it is in times when the matches are close.”
Damn right – it is fucking horrible, and cheating in my opinion, designed to put their opponent off their shot. It could and should have been stamped out years ago – by penalising the screaming grunters. Monica Seles I believe was one of the first – and should have had it penalised out of her game.
In the story I linked to for this post, there is a poll.
I want to know who the 7% who like the screaming and grunting are … maybe this woman?
Damn right it’s cheating. The irony is that the crowd can’t even fart sideways,nor rustle a twistie packet without being told to “Quiet please! Quiet please”