Last weekend, I ended my yearlong stint as the men’s tennis beat writer.
I was actually pretty sad to see the year go — I had a lot of fun watching those weekend matches at Hellman and analyzing how I could bring the intense back-and-forth action to life on paper.
After reflecting on my experiences sitting and watching in the stands, I remembered the very first thing that came to my mind when I watched Cal’s first home match at Hellman: What’s up with all the noise on the court?
And why was it only coming from the opposing team?
Although the Bears had some of the most obnoxious cheerleaders on the sidelines, I barely heard a peep from the Cal men’s tennis team during play. But throughout the year, I’ve listened to hours’ worth of very loud and absurdly entertaining grunts from the Bears’ opponents.
It was a funny initial notion, but that fleeting thought prompted me to wonder: Do tennis players grunt when they’re tired? Is it something that comes out naturally, or is it forced?
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was curious about the shrieking noises some tennis players make when they smash the ball.
And apparently, there’s even been some debate — mostly in professional women’s tennis — over whether or not it’s legal to “excessively grunt” during a match. Last year at the Roland Garros in Paris, the WTA, ITF and representatives from the four major grand-slam tournaments announced a triple-pronged plan to drive out “excessive grunting for future generations.”
According to Stacey Allaster, chief executive of the WTA, the plan includes the establishment of a rule that determines acceptable on-court noise levels, education for the next generation of tennis players and my all-time personal favorite: the creation of a device that measures grunting levels on the court.
A grunt-o-meter — although, Allaster prefers not to call it that.
The current generation of players will not be affected by the plan, which makes sense. How could you change something that pro tennis players have been doing their entire lives — something that is ingrained as a natural part of their tennis skill set?
But, boiling it down even further, why do tennis players actually grunt?
Some people, like Alison McConnell — a professor of applied physiology in the United Kingdom and author of “Breathe Strong, Perform Better” — believes that grunting is physiologically necessary in order to strike the ball with the greatest amount of force. According to McConnell, players have to control their exhalation to maintain muscle stiffness, and grunting helps them do so.
Others believe it’s just a tactic players use to distract their opponents and cause them to lose focus on the ball. Is this an issue that should actually be charged as part of the tennis hindrance rule? Just watch a matchup between Russian pro player Maria Sharapova (101 decibels — comparable to a lion’s roar at 110 decibels) and one of the Williams sisters (85-90 decibels) and see what you think.
Whether or not that says anything about devious strategies tennis players might employ — or if it’s all just a silly problem that’s been blown out of proportion — is completely unsettled and still being debated over.
But it all seems slightly ridiculous to me, and for the issue to top the WTA’s to-do list in the coming years makes the whole thing even more ludicrous.
If grunting just happens to be an unintentionally distracting tactic players use to strengthen their strokes, then the fact that none of the players on the Cal squad grunt may just be a big coincidence. But in my mind, Cal’s quiet nature on the court just makes the Cal team all the more impressive — just because no matter what, I know they’re not using any cheap tricks on the court.
But maybe that’s also just because I’m a Golden Bear.
Listen for the silence the next time you visit Hellman.
Contact Janice at [email protected].