June 23, 2011
The distracting grunting of female players is ruining tennis. Or so said Wimbledon official Ian Ritchie in an interview Wednesday with London's Telegraph.
Ritchie says his "post bag" (that's how they talk over there) is filled to the brim with spectator complaints about female players' shrieks and wails, and he encourages other players who are also bothered by the noise to complain to the umpire and hopefully eradicate the woeful practice
Grunting by female tennis stars has been as big a tradition as out-there outfits, and we here at CM aren't sure how we'd like tennis without it.
The Serena sisters are famous for their guttural utterances, and Maria Sharapova has the special honor of being the loudest female tennis star to ever register on the Telegraph's grunt-o-meter, hitting 105 decibels in 2009. That's almost as impressive as her serve.
Plus, some experts argue that the quick release of air helps to put more power behind the ball. Belarus' Victoria Azarenka, a Wimbledon semifinalist back in 2009 and a recent target of Ritche's ire, agrees. "I've been doing it since I was 10 years old," Azarenka says. "I wasn't really strong and that was what helped me to accelerate more, to put more power to the ball."
Whatever your stance, you've got to embrace what lady grunts have done for comedy. Watch Tina Fey and Amy Poehler engage in a tennis tourney grunt-off below:
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