Scott 5Squealing in tennis - a blight on the game???
January 27th 2010 04:09
So this is a topic that has always been at the forefront of my mind. I am of course referring to the disturbing trend of squealing and grunting that's occuring in tennis.
I will say that I do enjoy watching tennis and nothing gives me a greater thrill than watching the best players in the world playing against each other at a Grand Slam. Unfortunately over the past few years, there has been a depressing trend of grunting and squealing entering the game of tennis and sitting here today watching the 3rd set of the Li Na vs Venus Williams has convinced me that something needs to be done.
Every shot, Venus Williams had this really irritating grunt and it made me very close to wanting to switch the tennis off or on mute. Sport is something that cannot under any circumstances be watched on mute. The reason for this is simple. When watching sport, the commentators can make comments and educate the average sports fan about their respective sport. This helps build the knowledge bank of a sports fan like myself and is something I take great pleasure in.
Speaking to my Dad, he tells me that this grunting trend began with Monica Seles but over the previous decade, it has gotten horrible. I openly name a few players responsible for the grunting epidemic:
- Maria Sharapova
- Serena Williams
- Venus Williams
- Rafael Nadal
This is cheating. Grunting as you're about to hit the ball is designed to disguise the twang of the ball off the racket. This is a disadvantage for your opponent and at the present moment is legalised cheating because there's nothing in the rules to stop it.
People look up to these players because of how competitive and skillful they are on the court. Sadly their grunting is also starting to impact on junior level with a story that captured the attention of the world when a 9-yr old girl was banned from playing tennis for grunting. When a 9-yr old girl is grunting and emulating her heroes, you know that something stinks bad.
In all honesty, grunting has got to a stage that it is turning people off watching tennis live because they can't block their ears.not to mention being stuck with the game on mute. Something has got to give here and in all honesty, tennis administrators world wide are to blame for this.
It's really quite obvious what needs to be done here. Hit the players with something that hurts.
First Offence - Warning
All-Subsequent Offences - 1 point deduction (so at 40-30, you'd be dragged back to 30-30)
If a person commits more than a pre-determined number of offences (say 5), they should be hit with an immediate fine somewhere in the vicinity of US$5,000. Should the offences continue, the fines should increase.
I think that a loss of point and loss of prize money would be a very good deterrant to prevent people from grunting and it's about time administrators took a stand and clamped down on this "cheating" and ensured that tennis maintained it's stance as a sport of fair play.
It's really not that hard and this solution is so simple, I cannot believe that it hasn't been implemented yet.
Lift your game tennis administrators.
I will say that I do enjoy watching tennis and nothing gives me a greater thrill than watching the best players in the world playing against each other at a Grand Slam. Unfortunately over the past few years, there has been a depressing trend of grunting and squealing entering the game of tennis and sitting here today watching the 3rd set of the Li Na vs Venus Williams has convinced me that something needs to be done.
Every shot, Venus Williams had this really irritating grunt and it made me very close to wanting to switch the tennis off or on mute. Sport is something that cannot under any circumstances be watched on mute. The reason for this is simple. When watching sport, the commentators can make comments and educate the average sports fan about their respective sport. This helps build the knowledge bank of a sports fan like myself and is something I take great pleasure in.
Speaking to my Dad, he tells me that this grunting trend began with Monica Seles but over the previous decade, it has gotten horrible. I openly name a few players responsible for the grunting epidemic:
- Maria Sharapova
- Serena Williams
- Venus Williams
- Rafael Nadal
This is cheating. Grunting as you're about to hit the ball is designed to disguise the twang of the ball off the racket. This is a disadvantage for your opponent and at the present moment is legalised cheating because there's nothing in the rules to stop it.
People look up to these players because of how competitive and skillful they are on the court. Sadly their grunting is also starting to impact on junior level with a story that captured the attention of the world when a 9-yr old girl was banned from playing tennis for grunting. When a 9-yr old girl is grunting and emulating her heroes, you know that something stinks bad.
In all honesty, grunting has got to a stage that it is turning people off watching tennis live because they can't block their ears.not to mention being stuck with the game on mute. Something has got to give here and in all honesty, tennis administrators world wide are to blame for this.
It's really quite obvious what needs to be done here. Hit the players with something that hurts.
First Offence - Warning
All-Subsequent Offences - 1 point deduction (so at 40-30, you'd be dragged back to 30-30)
If a person commits more than a pre-determined number of offences (say 5), they should be hit with an immediate fine somewhere in the vicinity of US$5,000. Should the offences continue, the fines should increase.
I think that a loss of point and loss of prize money would be a very good deterrant to prevent people from grunting and it's about time administrators took a stand and clamped down on this "cheating" and ensured that tennis maintained it's stance as a sport of fair play.
It's really not that hard and this solution is so simple, I cannot believe that it hasn't been implemented yet.
Lift your game tennis administrators.
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