Rooks, Velasco Roar Into Quarters : Tennis: Grunting gains in popularity among younger players.

A spectator who dares to utter a peep during a point is given a warning glare by one of the players.

Tennis etiquette is not to be taken lightly, it seems to say.

How then, can that same player remain unruffled when her opponent unleashes a series of grunts that can be heard a dozen courts over?

“I really don’t notice it, it doesn’t bother me at all,” said Spring Valley’s Vanessa Rooks, who advanced to the quarterfinals of the Girls 16s National Tennis Championships with a 6-4, 6-1 victory Wednesday over Escondido’s Molly Gavin at Morley Field.

Rooks isn’t alone in her tolerance. Chula Vista’s Marisa Velasco isn’t bothered by the grunts and groans that seem standard fare in today’s junior tennis.

“I don’t think about it. I’m trying to focus on my match,” said Velasco, who reached the round of eight with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Amber Basica of Lomita.

Rooks, seeded third, and Velasco, the eighth-seeded player, are admitted grunters, yet they are hardly the exceptions.

When San Diego State’s Carol Plunkett arrived to do a little scouting for the Aztec women’s team, an umpire greeted her with, “Hi. Have you ever heard so much grunting in your life?”

Said Plunkett: ‘I’ve never seen so many doing it at one time.”

The object is supposed to be who can do the most with her racquet, not who can make the biggest racket.

So what’s all the noise about?

Several coaches cited the Monica Theory. Monica Seles is known for her grunt as well as her ground strokes, and found herself the focus of an uproar over her involuntary guttural sounds at Wimbledon several months ago--although she was silent at a tournament in Manhattan Beach this week.

The coaches said it’s normal for young players to emulate their idols.

“I think there’s some correlation,” said University of San Diego women’s coach Sherri Stephens, who compared girls sounding like Seles to boys dressing like Andre Agassi.

“Like with Agassi. All the sudden you saw little boys wearing bright colors and stretch pants under their shorts,” Stephens said.

Carol Watson, a coach for the United States Tennis Assn.’s Player Development program, said the noise has seemed to pick up this year and Seles might be a contributing factor.

More likely, she said, is that as the game becomes more multi-faceted in the young ranks, the sounds can help players hit harder or give them a psychological edge.

“Some young kids think a grunt will give them more energy,” Watson said.

Said Velasco: “It’s just natural. Girls are hitting a lot harder now and the points are a lot tougher to win.”

Watson suggested that the expressions become habit and--like anything else--difficult to break, a theory Velasco eagerly agreed with.

“As the match gets tighter, the grunt gets louder,” Velasco said. “But I don’t even realize I do it.”

Velasco said she was warned during Clay Court Nationals about her grunting and is trying to wean herself of it.

“I’ve been working on it, but I’m trying to do it gradually. I don’t want to try to cut it out all at once, because that’s where my focus would be.”

To stop cold turkey would certainly be a hindrance.

“It interferes with your performance when you’re trying to change it,” Plunkett said.

And as distracting as she finds it, there are physiological benefits.

“A subtle grunt can improve your power or enhance your timing. There are reasons to do it. Mentally, it becomes almost a mantra of some kind,” she said.

But college tennis has enacted a rule designed to force players to pipe down. Plunkett said beginning next season, the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. will enforce a rule that will assess penalty points according to how disruptive a player’s sounds are.

“I think it’s really fair,” Plunkett said.

Plunkett said there’s a reasonable noise level players should be able to tolerate, but when you can’t hear the ball being hit, whether it’s across the net or two courts away, it’s disruptive and something has to give.

“I would like to see the pros or whoever get some moderation,” she said. “It could start at this level. If they’re able to control it here, when they’re older they won’t be doing it.”

Besides, Velasco doesn’t want to be remembered for her grunting prowess.

“I don’t want to be known for my grunting, I want to be known for my tennis.”

Tennis Notes

It was a tough day for seeded players at Morley Field, as the second, sixth and seventh seeds lost their third-round matches Wednesday. No. 2 Mylin Torres of Savannah, Ga., lost to Sarasota, Fla.’s Christina Moros, 6-7, 6-1, 6-0; No. 6 Stephanie Nickitas of Tampa fell to Laura Guignon of St. Louis, 6-1, 6-4; and No. 7 Stephy Halsell of Cypress, Tex., dropped a 7-6, 6-4 match to Jennifer Hall of Oklahoma City, Okla. In the battle of the Amandas, top-seeded Amanda Basica of Lomita defeated Amanda Augustus of Palos Verdes, 6-3, 6-3.