.gif)
Grunting (tennis)
Encyclopedia
Grunting in tennis
refers to the loud noise, sometimes described as "shrieking" or "screaming", made by some players during their strokes. It is prominent in women's tennis but also exists in men's tennis. Many players and fans find it to be quite obnoxious above a certain sound level.
Monica Seles
and Jimmy Connors
are often credited with starting the "grunt" in tennis in the female and male games respectively. Examples of modern tennis players who grunt are Serena
and Venus Williams
, Maria Sharapova
, Elena Dementieva
, Victoria Azarenka
, Michelle Larcher de Brito
, Rafael Nadal
and Novak Djokovic
.
complained about Andre Agassi
's grunting, "When Agassi went for a big shot, his grunt was much louder. It threw off my timing." In the 2009 French Open
, Aravane Rezaï
complained to the umpire
about Michelle Larcher de Brito
's "shrieking", which led to a Grand Slam supervisor being brought to the court. No action was taken against Larcher de Brito and she was booed off the court. Afterwards former tennis player Martina Navratilova said that grunting was a form of cheating
, "The grunting has reached an unacceptable level. It is cheating, pure and simple. It is time for something to be done." She also cited Roger Federer
as an example of a successful player who doesn't grunt: "Roger Federer doesn't make a noise when he hits the ball—go and listen." Another former player, Chris Evert
, stopped short of labelling it as cheating but said, "I wouldn't go that far [to say it's cheating] but I think the grunts are getting louder and more shrill now with the current players."
Some tennis players have defended grunting. Michelle Larcher de Brito
, who had a reported decibel
reading of 109, said, "If people don't like my grunting, they can always leave". In a different interview she said, "Nobody can tell me to stop grunting. Tennis is an individual sport and I'm an individual player. If they have to fine me, go ahead, because I'd rather get fined than lose a match because I had to stop grunting." Former Wimbledon
champion Maria Sharapova
, who has officially reached 101 decibels (a lion
's roar is 110 decibels), stated, "I've done this ever since I started playing tennis and I'm not going to change." Former Women's World Number 1, Serena Williams
, said that opponents grunting doesn't affect her, "I just play my game and sometimes I grunt and sometimes I don't. I'm not conscious when I’m doing it. I'm just zoned out. It doesn't really affect me if my opponent is [grunting]."
Tennis coach Nick Bollettieri
, who has coached many "grunters", says grunting is natural, "I prefer to use the word 'exhaling'. I think that if you look at other sports, weightlifting or doing squats or a golfer when he executes the shot or a hockey player, the exhaling is a release of energy in a constructive way." Louise Deeley, a sports psychologist
at Roehampton University
, believes that grunting is part of the rhythm
for tennis players, "The timing of when they actually grunt helps them with the rhythm of how they're hitting and how they're pacing things," she also believes that banning grunting isn't the solution, "They may feel, on the surface, that this is going to be a distraction to their game, that it is part and parcel of what they do." Bruce Lynne, a physiologist
at University College London
, believes that reflexes might have an effect, "If you're looking at reflexes in the legs and you ask someone to clench their jaw, then believe it or not, the reflexes in their legs get brisker, that's a well-known problem called re-enforcement."
Currently, an umpire is allowed to award a point against a player if the umpire feels the offender has hindered the opponent. Nick Bollettieri suggested a gradual punishment for repeat offenders would be better, "loss of point, loss of game, [and even to] loss of match". Tennis officials are considering making noise hindrance as a result of grunting part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF)
's code of conduct which, like Bollettieri's suggestion, could also lead to forfeited matches.
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
refers to the loud noise, sometimes described as "shrieking" or "screaming", made by some players during their strokes. It is prominent in women's tennis but also exists in men's tennis. Many players and fans find it to be quite obnoxious above a certain sound level.
Monica Seles
Monica Seles
Monica Seles is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, former Yugoslavia to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007...
and Jimmy Connors
Jimmy Connors
James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is an American former world no. 1 tennis player....
are often credited with starting the "grunt" in tennis in the female and male games respectively. Examples of modern tennis players who grunt are Serena
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
and Venus Williams
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 101 as of 10 October 2011 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles as of 2011. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate...
, Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
, Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...
, Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is world no. 3, which she first achieved on 12 September 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by two spots....
, Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Caroline Larcher de Brito, born Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito, also known as Michelle Larcher de Brito or Michelle Brito is a Portuguese tennis player. Larcher de Brito's family moved to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis...
, Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals...
and Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who has been ranked world no. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals since 4 July 2011. He has won four Grand Slam singles titles: the 2008 and 2011 Australian Open, the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2011 US Open...
.
Punishment
Many people have called for grunting to be banned from tennis or at least be made punishable. In the 1988 US Open, Ivan LendlIvan Lendl
Ivan Lendl is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Lendl became a United States citizen. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis...
complained about Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...
's grunting, "When Agassi went for a big shot, his grunt was much louder. It threw off my timing." In the 2009 French Open
2009 French Open
The 2009 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 108th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year...
, Aravane Rezaï
Aravane Rezaï
Aravane Rezaï is an Iranian-French tennis player born in Saint-Étienne, France to Iranian parents. She is the current French No. 5 in women's tennis. Rezaï took up tennis after a childhood stint as her older brother's ball girl...
complained to the umpire
Official (tennis)
In tennis, an official is a person who ensures that a match or tournament is conducted according to the International Tennis Federation Rules of Tennis and other competition regulations....
about Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Caroline Larcher de Brito, born Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito, also known as Michelle Larcher de Brito or Michelle Brito is a Portuguese tennis player. Larcher de Brito's family moved to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis...
's "shrieking", which led to a Grand Slam supervisor being brought to the court. No action was taken against Larcher de Brito and she was booed off the court. Afterwards former tennis player Martina Navratilova said that grunting was a form of cheating
Cheating
Cheating refers to the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. The rules infringed may be explicit, or they may be from an unwritten code of conduct based on morality, ethics or custom, making the identification of cheating a subjective process. Cheating can refer...
, "The grunting has reached an unacceptable level. It is cheating, pure and simple. It is time for something to be done." She also cited Roger Federer
Roger Federer
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...
as an example of a successful player who doesn't grunt: "Roger Federer doesn't make a noise when he hits the ball—go and listen." Another former player, Chris Evert
Chris Evert
Christine Marie "Chris" Evert is a former world number 1 professional tennis player from the United States. She won 18 Grand Slam singles championships, including a record seven championships at the French Open and a record six championships at the U.S. Open. She was the year-ending World No...
, stopped short of labelling it as cheating but said, "I wouldn't go that far [to say it's cheating] but I think the grunts are getting louder and more shrill now with the current players."
Michelle Larcher de Brito
Michelle Caroline Larcher de Brito, born Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito, also known as Michelle Larcher de Brito or Michelle Brito is a Portuguese tennis player. Larcher de Brito's family moved to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis...
, who had a reported decibel
Decibel
The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities...
reading of 109, said, "If people don't like my grunting, they can always leave". In a different interview she said, "Nobody can tell me to stop grunting. Tennis is an individual sport and I'm an individual player. If they have to fine me, go ahead, because I'd rather get fined than lose a match because I had to stop grunting." Former Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
champion Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
, who has officially reached 101 decibels (a lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
's roar is 110 decibels), stated, "I've done this ever since I started playing tennis and I'm not going to change." Former Women's World Number 1, Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
, said that opponents grunting doesn't affect her, "I just play my game and sometimes I grunt and sometimes I don't. I'm not conscious when I’m doing it. I'm just zoned out. It doesn't really affect me if my opponent is [grunting]."
Tennis coach Nick Bollettieri
Nick Bollettieri
Nicholas James Bollettieri is an American tennis coach who is credited with developing many world-class champions, including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Mary Pierce. Recently, he has worked with 2006 U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova, Jelena Janković, Nicole Vaidišová and Sabine...
, who has coached many "grunters", says grunting is natural, "I prefer to use the word 'exhaling'. I think that if you look at other sports, weightlifting or doing squats or a golfer when he executes the shot or a hockey player, the exhaling is a release of energy in a constructive way." Louise Deeley, a sports psychologist
Sport psychology
Sport psychology is an interdisciplinary science that draws on knowledge from the fields of kinesiology and psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors...
at Roehampton University
Roehampton University
The University of Roehampton is a campus university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, south-west London.-History:...
, believes that grunting is part of the rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
for tennis players, "The timing of when they actually grunt helps them with the rhythm of how they're hitting and how they're pacing things," she also believes that banning grunting isn't the solution, "They may feel, on the surface, that this is going to be a distraction to their game, that it is part and parcel of what they do." Bruce Lynne, a physiologist
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
, believes that reflexes might have an effect, "If you're looking at reflexes in the legs and you ask someone to clench their jaw, then believe it or not, the reflexes in their legs get brisker, that's a well-known problem called re-enforcement."
Currently, an umpire is allowed to award a point against a player if the umpire feels the offender has hindered the opponent. Nick Bollettieri suggested a gradual punishment for repeat offenders would be better, "loss of point, loss of game, [and even to] loss of match". Tennis officials are considering making noise hindrance as a result of grunting part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF)
International Tennis Federation
The International Tennis Federation is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913...
's code of conduct which, like Bollettieri's suggestion, could also lead to forfeited matches.