Female tennis players who grunt too loudly while playing at Wimbledon are said to be not only putting off their opponents on the court but are also spoiling the game for spectators.
During an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, said that officials at the British tournament were becoming “increasingly uneasy” about the practice of grunting.
The Wimbledon chief put the problem down to the younger players on the tennis circuit who he considered to have an “education problem” regarding the controversial grunting issue.
The grunts seem to be becoming increasingly loud, with Victoria Azarenka, the player from Belarus, notching up grunts reaching 95 decibels during her match against Magdalena Rybarikova and some of these grunts turning into wails, as they exceed more than 1.5 seconds each.
Ian Ritchie told The Daily Telegraph: “I think there is an education problem with younger players. And certainly my postbag, if you say “what do you get the most letters about”, I would say grunting is high up.”
The loudest recorded grunt on the tennis circuit came from Maria Sharapova, who pushed the grunt all the way up to 105 decibels during a match in 2009
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk.
