Orangeyes
R.I.P Dan
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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It all started years ago with Monica Seles and her -ME sounding grunt. In the semi's of Wimbledon one year Martina complained to the judge that Seles' grunting didn't allow her to hear the ball hitting the racket. Seles refrained & still won that match but in her next one, the championship, she did not grunt and lost to Stephanie Graf. Many thought Seles was thrown off her game.
ESPN's OTL's yesterday had a panel discussion on the topic. Pat McEnroe moderated and had Brad Gilbert, Pam Shriver and the classy Chris Evert give their opinions.
The most complaints are coming from the fans who are fed up with listening to these guttural sounds for hours on end. Viewers are turning off the volume or tuning out.
Martina won 18 grand slam titles with nary a grunt. The head of the USTA says they want to phase it out gradually, starting with the developmental aged players. Martina says make an off season rule and make it a point penalty & the players will immediately stop doing it.
There is a 13 year old female Indian tennis sensation at Nick Boletri's school in Florida who was a grunter. She was asked to instead breath out. When asked how long it took to adjust she replied, 5 minutes. In fact she said it helped her stay in the point longer. That being said, tennis needs to take the gloves off, stop molly coddling these prima donna's & listen to the fans.
Other irritating player habits were brought up. Shriver mentioned Rafael Nadal pulling his shorts out of his butt crack then putting his fingers to his nose. Maria Sharapova sounded a bit indignant when in an interview the topic of her loud grunting was brought up. "No one important has ever brought that up to me, I have done that my entire career!
Stay tuned or tune out, it's your choice.
Martina on Grunting
OTL From Yesterday
