After her quarterfinal loss to Victoria Azarenka yesterday, Agnieszka Radwanska took aim at Maria Sharapova, calling her grunt “annoying” and “too loud” despite having no problems with her friend Azarenka’s grunt. Needless to say, the Russian didn’t take too kindly to her comments when informed of them a day later and bit back in true Sharapovian style.
Q. A lot of players this week have made comments talking about how they think the noise that you and Azarenka in particular make is excessive.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Who?
Q. Radwanska was one player that said she thinks the noise you and Azarenka make is excessive and she’d like to see the WTA change the rules to prohibit that.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Isn’t she back in Poland already?
Q. Yes.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: When did she get a chance to say that?
Q. After she lost her quarterfinal.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: She lost the match?
Q. Yes.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: You’ve sure obviously asked me this question before. I’ve heard it a few times over my career. You’ve watched me grow up, you’ve watched me play tennis. I’ve been the same over the course of my career. No one important enough has told me to change or do something different.
I’ve answered it many times before. I’m sure I’ll answer it many more times ahead. I’m okay with that.
As always, brilliant stuff from Maria “More Effortless Shade Than A Willow Tree” Sharapova. It’s no secret that she and Radwanska aren’t particularly fond of each other, and that coupled with Radwanska’s comments a couple of days ago having more to do with her liking Azarenka and disliking Sharapova, make it even more comical. A figurative knockout uppercut from the 24 year old.
Speaking more generally, the recent obsession about grunting has been absolutely astounding to watch. Usually, the tabloids at Wimbledon are the ones who make a massive deal over the grunting for two weeks, and aside from that, nobody cares.
But this year, there are suddenly commentators openly broadcasting their disgust during matches, writers are dedicating an obscene amount of space to it, and press conferences are being bombarded and hijacked on that one subject. Meanwhile, Nadal is getting away with receiving some of the most blatant illegal coaching in the history of tennis (even Carlos Rodriguez and Justine Henin would never!), while Nadal and countless other men are bending the rules to the limit in the amount of time they spend between. Double standards and hypocrisy are fun!
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I can only speak from a spectator’s point of view. This grunting, screeching or whatever you want to call what some of the players do while they play, is getting to be rather annoying. If I watch on TV, I mute the commentary - which is not what I should be doing. It was an annoyance when Monica Seles first started this craze, and just like the bouncing of the ball before serving, it is now being done by almost every tennis player. Funny when Azarenka and Sharapova warm up before they start of the match, they don’t utter a sound! Why is that? No-one can concentrate on the game while this is going on from one end to the other.
My response the latter part of the commentary after Sharapova defended her grunting, is as follows: I am dead against all the “medical Time-outs”, the time wasting between points, the walking about the court, gathering tennis balls and then casting some aside, the countless bouncing of the ball - either with the racquet or hand - before serving and the stupid stuff players do - Rafa and his hair, his pants, his water bottles, etc. If he wears pants which are not so tight fitting, and/or under pants instead of what worries him constantly, he would be able to serve a lot quicker. I even noticed that Roger was getting frustrated with having to wait for ages to receive serves from Rafa, as well as Novak, who bounces the ball sometimes up to 18 times before he serves. Ridiculous indeed!!
I think the Tennis Association should do something about these issues. The time-outs are strategically taken sometimes to upset the opponent, that any fool can see.