The curious case of Maria Sharapova

From the outside, Maria Sharapova looks so divine and peaceful. She is worth a million bucks with her perfect grooming, lovely American accent, blond streaks of flowing hair, long legs and slim frame. She epitomizes Hollywood more than even some of the Hollywood stars. Her photos that are circulated in the net and her various appearances on fashion shows, red carpet events make her hot page 3 material for the international paparazzi.

On the tennis court also, her attire is perfect. She is all decked up like a barbie doll with her short skirt, frills and all. The color of her on-court attire varies according to the Slam. For New York, she generally comes in an all black stunning outfit that perfectly contrasts with her glowing skin and blond locks.

Angelic at the outset

Even her practice sessions go on peacefully without much ruckus. But, once she starts playing the actual match, it all becomes too torturous for the viewer. The reason being the wild shrieks that range from the manic to barbaric to sheer lunacy. Her grunts have been measured at 100 decibels. My God. These shrieks start right from the very first point of the match. Why does she do this?

• Is it some sort of psychological one-upmanship that she wishes to accomplish over her rivals, through these shrieks?
• Do her shots have that extra pace and verve if accompanied by these shrieks?
• Is it ingrained in her psyche from her childhood days?
• Was she such a big fan of Monica Seles(93.7 decibels grunt)?
• Does she wish to scare her opponents away?

Time to seal the ears

Here are some quotes explaining this ugly grunting phenomenon.

… “Grunting is more prevalent in Women’s tennis because when you grunt, when you breath at the contact point, you’re actually generating more velocity out of the racquet head, you’re more relaxed and you get power,” … explains Dr. Jim Loehr, the CEO of LGE Performance Systems and the man who helped turn Monica Seles into a wailer.

Loehr taught Seles to attack the ball with her grunts as well as the racquet. … “She was so shy and I wanted to get her to be a little more aggressive . [Just] making the sound helps her to be more assertive in every aspect of her play,” … Loehr explains.

Sports psychologist Dr. Dennis Sprague breaks grunt music down straight: … “Basically [grunts] relieve tension and maintain a level of arousal for optimal performance.” …

There can be many more such stupid and silly reasons. But one thing for sure, it is just not enjoyable. I don’t want to focus on Serena Williams (88 decibels grunt) because her physical attributes gel with those grunts. Her muscular Afro American body and macho body language are in sync with those loud grunts. I am not sounding racist. But Serena or Venus grunting on the court, doesn’t sound curious.

Only for Maria, it sounds very odd because of her angelic appearance. You just can’t make out that this is the very same person who is actually making such a big noise on court. It is as if she is having an orgasm on the court, while grunting or shrieking or screaming or whatever.

GUGA … the name and the moans sound the same ….

Among the men, the Spanish and Latin American players almost always grunt and do so in the same fashion too. But that is more musical than manic. It is in fact enjoyable and addictive listening to Rafa’s moans and Guga’s moans. But the ladies take shrieking and screaming to a whole new level and result in a depressing scenario for the viewers. Already the quality in the women’s game is appalling and only a few players like Maria Sharapova hold some promise for the future. But, this shrieking is putting me off from watching her matches and consequently some quality tennis.

But the WTA, the body that matters isn’t much concerned about this grunting … “Grunt if you like women’s tennis”… they proudly proclaim. There are also people who support grunting like one Dr.Murray who says … “I don’t think it should be that rigid, I think if people want to grunt let them grunt. It doesn’t have to be like the All England Club all the time.” …

Coming back to Sharapova, there is a beauty to her game, her confidence and her demeanor on court. I personally feel that given her talent, her looks, her mental strength, her dedication etc. etc. if only she didn’t grunt, she would have become the perfect prototype for a female tennis player on the lines of Steffi Graf, the ultimate tennis queen there ever was.

Cut the shrieks Maria … you'll be perfect