Women tennis players who grunt loudly when hitting the ball are doing it on purpose to disturb the opponent, says Alan Mills, the referee in charge of Wimbledon. The tournament starts Monday.
He said coaches were deliberately training women players to grunt the loudest.
The loudest grunter in the game at the moment is Maria Sharapova, 18, the defending champion. The noise she makes when hitting the ball has been measured at 100 decibels, equivalent to a small aircraft landing nearby. But an unfazed Sharapova says, "I can’t help it because I have been doing it since the age of four".
Mills said he was powerless to check grunting as there were no rules to ban them. " Officials can only act if the player is shown to be making the noise on purpose, which is impossible to do."
Pat Cash who will be commenting for the BBC at this year's championship admitted grunting was annoying. It
troubles spectators too. A TV channel showing Australian Open had received
{{/usCountry}}troubles spectators too. A TV channel showing Australian Open had received
{{/usCountry}}hundreds of complaints that the grunts ruined their enjoyment of the game.
But the Women's Tennis Association, which once used the advertising "Grunt if you like women tennis" to woo more fans, denied that there was any real
problem.
This year, the William sisters will be the biggest rivals to Sharapova in the grunting game.
High decibels
• Maria Sharapova…..100db
• Serena Williams…….88db
• Venus Williams……..85db
• Lindsay Davenport…84db
• Elena Bovina……… 81db