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| Sharapova, captured mid-scream. |
I love watching the tennis. Love, love, LOVE it. Especially when it’s at the top professional level. In my opinion, tennis beats the cricket any day of the week (apologies to all you cricketing tragics, but Ponting, Clarke et al just don’t cut it in my book). The best part of summer television consists of watching the action on the court at the Australian Open and is worth all the nights of sleep depravation to catch every last backhand winner ripped down the line. It’s just magic.
But here’s what I’m NOT enjoying so much: the incessant screeching (especially by the women) as a part of Every. Single. Shot. I mean, come on ladies. I know you’re physically exerting everything you’ve got against your opponent and as a keen spectator I totally appreciate the efforts you’re making but, FFS, I’ve gone through child-birth making less noise than that!
And I’m not the only one. I read in the paper that the WTA are looking at ways to reduce the on-court shrieking, and warn they could penalise players under existing ‘exessive noise’ rules. Apparently the noise level from some of the worst offenders is almost 100 dB! How much of a big stick the WTA have remains to be seen but I hope there is something they can do. At best, it’s annoying and irritating but at its worst, it can be off-putting and detrimental to the effectiveness of the opposing player’s return.
At any rate, we’re now at the business end of the Open and we tennis fans are positively salivating over the prospect of semi-final matches to come: Clijsters vs Azarenka, Kvitova vs Sharapova, Nadal vs Federer and Murray vs Njokovic.
Bring it ON. *bounces…. quietly*
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