Grunting Takes Center Stage In Istanbul

With Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka both present in Istanbul, the first two days of the WTA championships have unsurprisingly been ripe with discussion on the subject of grunting. The top eight players in the world were all grilled on the grunting issue, and it was world number one Caroline Wozniacki who surprisingly proved the most outspoken on the subject, even going as far as to suggest that certain players deliberately use their grunts in order to distract opponents and cheat.

“I think there are some players who do it [grunting] on purpose,” She said. “They don’t do it in practice and then they come into the match and they grunt. I understand if they do it in practice and in matches, that’s different. I think they [the officials] could definitely cut it.”

“If you grunt really loudly, your opponent cannot hear how you hit the ball. Because you think the grunt is so loud, you think the ball is coming fast and suddenly it just goes slowly. Especially in tight moments, maybe the grunt helps them with getting less nervous.” Though the pair refer to each other as best friends, Azarenka was having none of it. When informed of Wozniacki’s comments, she was asked what she would say to an opponent who complained against her grunting, Azarenka was coy.

“I would just say, Mind your own business,“ she laughed “I guess. I hope you can beat me. That’s it.” But that was one of only few smiles from Azarenka. As the questions on grunting piled up, the Belarusian visibly became more and more irritated as the atmosphere in the press room became frostier by the second. Azarenka looked ready to pounce on the reporters at any minute, and it one particular question eventually set her off.

“Really. That’s what I have been trying to tell you, but you keep asking me the same question, just trying to turn it around. And you’re not gonna get another answer.” And with that the press conference ended. A figurative mic drop.

From an objective point of view, Azarenka has every right to be angry and frustrated at the incessant questions on her grunting. Not only is she not doing anything against the rules, but not once in the Belarusian’s professional career has a player complained against her. Indeed, when asked, Sam Stosur was quick to note that she “doesn’t really notice it” on court.

The only prominent on-court complaints came almost twenty years ago at the infamous Wimbledon 1992 tournament as the similarly infamous ’grunt-o-metre’ was invented to measure Monica Seles’ grunts and media coverage on the noise reached an all-time high. Martina Navratilova – who had never previously ever complained against Seles – made complaints against the umpire.

What is often left out in this story however, is that as told by Seles in her autobiography From Fear To Victory, Navratilova later apologized to Seles for her comments in their Wimbledon semifinal, claiming that her complaints came in the heat of the moment and that she was ‘caught up’ in the media surrounding Seles at the time. And that’s all the grunting ’issue’ is, a sensation created solely by the media.

The men grunt as well – the noise in this year’s US Open final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was as loud as any other women’s match, with Nadal spending most of the match shouting his lungs dry. However, not a single word was spoken about it afterwards and it has never even been suggested that one of the many loud grunters on the ATP tour could be attempting to cheat their opponent.

If the noise was really an issue, then the male players would also be reprimanded – the only difference between Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova’s grunts being the pitch. But that simply isn’t enough to excuse this 19-year campaign to rid the WTA of grunting. By the same logic, Rafael Nadal should be forced to get rid of his butt-picking, as that too is irritating. Needless to say, the idea of Nadal being forced to stop grunting is preposterous. And by extension, so is the idea of female players being forced to stop grunting.

Tumaini Carayol is a contributing writer at On The Baseline, and writes about professional tennis at his site Foot Fault.