Dear Sankara,
Indeed.
Wimbledon 2005 (The Telegraph)
“It had been suggested before these championships that Sharapova, and some of the other noisy women, deliberately indulge in a little gamesmanship by grunting so loudly. Alan Mills, the referee, was quoted as saying that the worst offenders should be removed from the tournament for “cheating”. Sharapova, it seems, should be seen, and not heard.
The closer the match is, the louder she grunts. Sharapova also has an impressive vocal range, with several different kinds of grunt. Occasionally she shrieked, occasionally she let out a low bass note of a grunt, occasionally she attempted to muffle the noise, and occasionally she really went for it and came close to stripping the paint off the debentures enclosure.”
And BBC Wimbledon blog –
“Comparing the grunts Seles’ grunts are a mere shadow of the power that is Sharapova’s screamers.”
A reader’s suggestion – “Should Sharapova be banned or deducted points?. I think a muffling mask could be used.”
Rgds / Charles.C
@ Simon -
Lawn tennis was invented in Wales and patented and popularised by a Welshman, Major Walter Wingfield. Why Major Wingfield did this is not certain, though it seems plain to me that it was to gain revenge on the English for 600 years of oppression and Gavin Henson being left out of the Lions team for the first Test. As a tool of Welsh vengeance, tennis can only work if the English take it seriously. Unfortunately for two weeks every year we do. Personally I hate tennis as the devil does milk but it is a choice between that and Bodger and Badger and frankly, once you discover the latter is not a DIY show hosted by Bernard Hinault, that is no choice at all.
Don't get me wrong, tennis is a pleasant pastime for foreign girls and the more delicate sort of boy and it is for this reason I regard England's long-term failure to produce a men's singles winner as a badge of national honour. People keep posing the question: is Tim Henman a failure? The answer plainly is that he most certainly is not. Fred Perry and Bunny Austin - they were failures. Tim is a loser and that makes him a winner in my book.
The average English woman is likewise far too robust to be bothering with a pastime as unashamedly cardigan-friendly as tennis. True, some have shamefully succeeded in the past but they, thank goodness, are not typical.
After all, Sue Barker is to the womanhood of Albion what the Pekinese is to the world of dogs - all very well if you want something cute to carry around in a shoulder bag but useless at scaring away burglars or herding frisky bullocks.
( http://www.buzzle.co...-2005-72100.asp - worth a few chuckles) )
