We need to get GRUNTING in tennis under control NOW. The purpose of this POST is to provide an opportunity for YOU to make a difference in the tennis world. YOU and I are the consumers of all things tennis. Your voice needs to be and deserves to be heard.
Grunting hindrance is a problem on the ATP Tour and even more so in the WTA and it is only escalating and becoming more problematic. It is my opinion that anything that is not in the best interests of tennis needs to be removed or improved to restore tennis to its potential position as the No.1 sport in the world.
THE PETITION:
Vote IN FAVOUR of making noise hindrance (as a result of grunting), part of the International Tennis Federation’s Code of Conduct. By adding grunting as a hindrance to the ITF code of conduct, this behaviour would become punishable. Therefore, players would make their best efforts to keep the noise down to a reasonable level to avoid warnings and penalties.
Currently, players have no incentive NOT to grunt…however, it is easy to motivate players to stop grunting immediately. How? Player’s hold winning as one of, if not, THE most important priority. By imposing a strict procedure that unnecessarily grunting once will warrant a warning, a second offence will incur a point penalty, a third would be penalised by adding one entire game to the opponent and a fourth time would mean the match would be awarded to the opponent on the spot.
Given that players would certainly not want to incur a game penalty or be defaulted out of any tournament, the players would certainly stop grunting immediately. It is that simple and it would work with immediate effect if it is strictly imposed.
OnCourt Advantage encourages you to stand up and be counted because strength lies in numbers. The greater number of people who sign this petition, the greater chance we can have a REAL influence on the decision makers.
It’s time to strike whilst the iron is hot. Tennis officials are considering classifying grunting as a noise hindrance and adding this to the ITF Code of Conduct. This petition will be forwarded to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), once there are 100 signatories and every 100 thereafter, so please add your comment below or on part 2 of “Sign the GRUNTING in Tennis Petition”, to reinforce that grunting is hurting the game and MANY people feel that way.
To read about a range of details and reasons in support of making grunting a noise hindrance see part 2 by clicking this link-> Sign the GRUNTING in Tennis Petition #2. Pictured above is VICTORIA AZARENKA!!!
Photo credit: Richard.Fisher
Cannot watch tennis now. Grunting too distracting.
A major effort should be made to make grunting (screaming!) a hinderance and start at junior tennis level. My tennis friends (4.0 & 4.5) were playing a fun match yesterday next to a 9 year old girl who literally screamed when she hit a ball! It was not a grunt….it was terribly distracting to all of us and we asked her if she could keep it down to a grunt. The father came over to us and screamed at us and told us to shut up! Oh dear….enough already with all this screaming!!!!
I just muted the Sharapova/Azarenka US open match.
I cannot watch ladies tennis when they grunt, scream etc. Sharopova is the worst. I hope she loses today
I’m heartened to read all the negative reaction to tennis grunting; I wouldn’t even mind seeing the grunters thrown off the courts. There are enough normal players to replace them.
Grunting is like screaming in the middle of a point. If screaming is an automatic hindrance, why isnt grunting?
It should be stopped. Ever since Seles started doing it the game has lost interest
Yes, I suppose excessive grunting can be annoying. However, honestly, I am not bothered by it. For young players it is a good lesson in exhaling during a stroke! Today, it is so much of an athletic sport than it used to be, I commend the players who put their entire self into their shots. I celebrate a great match no matter what it sounds like 🙂
Grunting is irritating nor is it necessary!
Imagine what life would be like if everyone grunted. Order meal in a restaurant: Hyunaayah! Get on the bus: Ayeeoweeah! Open a door: Arguuaahh! It has to stop somewhere and tennis has to set the example. End the grunting.
I think Sharapova is a great tennis player but I don’t watch her matches anymore because of the murderous noises she makes. Not necessary. BAN IT ALL.
The rules of the game of lawn tennis state that the only noise allowed is the sound of the ball hitting the racquet.Do any of you remember when Navratilova complained to the umpire that Cawley had made a noise during their semi-final at Wimbledon (can’t remember the year 1978 perhaps?),Cawleys noise was because of extreme pain in her leg not even a grunt!
I cant watch the women (grunting) it is so annoying, I dont care how good they play, GRUNTING SHOULD BE BANNED. i THINK A LOT MORE PEOPLE FEEL THE SAME WAY i DO.
Totally agree.
What reason for screaming and grunting other than in an attempt to annoy / frustrate one’s opponent? What a racket.
I turned off Azaranka vs Williams just now and then googled to test my reasoning. Sure enough I’m not the only one who finds this unnecessary and disturbing – ‘Tennis Noise’ stated in 2009 that Wimbledon were considering banning this nonsense – what ever happened to that proposal?
Geo
Sorry But I can’t bear watching the women’s tennis anymore because of the ridiculous grunting. How do the opponents manage? It really feels as though this is an intimidatory tactic. When this practice is banned I will start watching again. Meanwhile I’ll continue enjoying men’s tennis.
Couldn’t agree more OnCourt Advantage! Would love to see grunting made a noise hindrance within the ITF code of conduct. Grunting has certainly gotten out of control in modern tennis and is definitely unnecessary. Thank goodness for the ‘mute’ button on my tv remote! 🙂
After losing at Wimbledon, Sharapova was questioned by the press about her loud screaming… Her snotty reply was that, “No one of any importance has complained” — Obviously, she feels that her fans are not important. I wonder if she will feel the same way when her fans quit spending money on anything that she has to do with?
How quickly would the players react, if all the tennis fans watching a match, repeated each noise the players made, scream for scream, or grunt for grunt?
A former fan
Screaming is annoying no matter where it happens unless it is a plea for help in an emergency; which is what I believe women tennis players areclaiming by such activity.
A scream means to me the player has a confidence issue and needs to employ some means of distraction to the opponent’s concentration on a return shot.
If the screaming is taken away by the ruling commitee I will expect people will be placed in the stands; payed by the players not allowed to scream to scream from the stands for disruption during a return shot.
We all know people are cautioned about noise in the stands and always have been.
This is my point exactly. If fans are not allowed to scream during play; certainly players should not be allowed to as well.
I see this activity filtering down to high school levels to unnerve opponents in any sport.
Allowing screaming must be stopped immediately. It’s telling our children it’s O.K. to disrupt an opponent’s concentration.
That’s a great ploy during war but sports is supposed to build character; not destroy it; and certainly sports screamers are destroying their own character when they scream in an effort to disrupt an opponent’s concentration..
I am so sick of the ugly noises most women tennis players make at Wimbledon nowadays! It’s been going on for a good few years now, so why haven’t they been stopped from doing it yet? I’m sure it annoys the hell out of plenty of other people besides myself, and I wish it would stop!! Billie Jean King et al never used to scream and groan and yet they all played magnificent tennis. It’s not necessary. Please make it go away!!!
Very good article post. Great and I agree.
Do we need to watch women’s tennis with earplugs?
I used to play at the National Tennis Center. Out of courtesy, we would wait for the roar of the passing jets to fade before we served. How silly were we? Now we watch Women’s Tennis using earplugs.
How sad.
I too am a huge fan of tennis and love watching the game both live and on TV. I cannot understand how the officials can overlook the screaming and constant grunting. Besides being annoying it has to be be distracting especially as the scream carries over after your opponent has hit the ball and you are trying to set up for the return. I am amazed at the nonchalant attitude of the officials.
Additionally the fans spend a lot of time and money to watch tennis and we should not need ear plugs!!!
How unfair to other players to have to play against grunters…it’s cheating!
Don’t watch women’s tennis anymore. When they start losing endorsements and ticket sales, maybe they will stop those ridiculous, annoying noises.