Officials preparing for grunt work at Wimbledon
Wimbledon begins Monday, which can only mean three things: strawberries, cream and lots of female tennis players grunting.
Make it four things: And lots of fans complaining about the female tennis players grunting.
According to the Daily Mail, Maria Sharapova’s grunts of 101 decibels approach that of a lion’s roar (110 decibels) and eclipse the legendary grunts of Monica Seles (93.2). Both Williams sisters surpass 80 decibels -- Serena at 88.9 and Venus at 85.
The Mail reports that tennis officials are considering a crackdown on the grunters. Currently, players can have a point awarded against them if the umpire feels their grunts have hindered an opponent. New proposals to make noise hindrance part of the ITF’s code of conduct could potentially cause offenders to forfeit a whole game -- or match.
That seems a bit extreme, but even Nick Bollettieri, who coached Seles and Sharapova, believes some sort of action should be taken.
“There is a need for some sort of regulation,” Bollettieri told the Times of London. “Players on both the men’s and women’s tours grunt. Something eventually needs to be done.”
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Trivia time
How many major tournaments did Seles win during her career?
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Wear them at your own risk
Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press offers this multiple-choice sports quiz question: “What are the Lions considering putting on their practice jerseys?
“a) Corporate logos.
“b) Aliases, to protect the guilty.
“c) One sleeve at a time, like everybody else.
“d) Care instructions: Hang out to dry, just like they do to fans.”
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Can’t bear to look
Conan O’Brien, during his Friday night monologue, noted that ESPN The Magazine “just announced they plan to publish a body issue with nude pictures of sports figures. Apparently, John Madden retired just in time.”
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Trivia answer
Nine. Seles won the Australian Open four times, the French Open three times and the U.S. Open twice.
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And finally
From Greg Cote of the Miami Herald:
“Bulls rookie Derrick Rose apologized for a photo in which he flashes a gang sign at a college party at Memphis. But was it a gang sign? It could have been a sign for, ‘Somebody took the SAT for me.’ ”
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