The familiar debate over on-court decibel levels produced by tennis players has resurfaced after the Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday night drew mockery from the Melbourne Park crowd during her first-round Australian Open defeat to home hope Ashleigh Barty.
The 19-year-old from Minsk was her usual vocal self from the outset on Rod Laver Arena and the partisan crowd let their displeasure known by imitating her shrieks in between points.
At one stage, the umpire was forced to ask for quiet in the stands, although her choice of words — “Ladies and gentlemen please, during the rally, do not scream” — only seemed to make the crowd redouble their efforts and Sabalenka’s service preparation was interrupted by further impressions.
Photo: EPA
Barty appeared unimpressed by the crowd’s behavior at the time and afterward the Australian No. 1 said she had not been phased by the noise from Sabalenka.
“We knew it was coming,” she said. “I hadn’t seen a lot of her matches, but my coach had watched vision. He was aware it was coming. A lot of players grunt. A lot of players don’t grunt. It’s just the way they are, the way they play.”
While Barty said she was not unduly affected, plenty viewing from afar were.
“Sabalenka has 347 different sounding grunts. What a talent,” former US player Pam Shriver wrote on Twitter.
Sabalenka is not alone in practicing in-play grunting and the likes of Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and the Willams sisters, Serena and Venus, are among the most high-profile players to make noise when playing shots.
Nor is the practice limited to the women’s game, with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic also well-known for their on-court vocalizations, but public criticism is more often than not reserved for female players.
The debate over grunting centers on whether the noise is loud enough to the point of distraction for an opponent and if so, whether that constitutes a form of gamesmanship.
There was support for Sabalenka in the face of the fierce backlash, with some decrying the “bullying” nature of the crowd’s taunts and asking questions over the role of the official master of ceremonies on the court, who himself impersonated the player into the microphone.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS