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Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude
Monica Seles started this trend. After her success, many coaches of young players told their players that to improve their concentration, timing and breathing when hitting shots, they should make a sound as their racquet made contact wih the ball.
It has become very exaggerated (and annoying). Every so often, their is talk of cracking down on it (since it provides a distraction to the oponnent), however nothing much has ever come of it except for a few points taken away here an there when it appears unsportsmanlike.
It appears to be mostly gamesmanship at the pro level.
I play competitive amateur tennis and it's always funny to see somebody that is unremarkable in their power grunt really loud as they strike the ball.
ADG Webmaster
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Hate to burst your bubble, but grunting has been around since the 60's. When you reach a certain skill level, the effort expelled is amazingly high. Check out some old footage of Laver, McEnroe, Borg, etc... Hell.. Check out footage of Agassi when he was 16.
The excessive grunts were made popular by Monica...I will give you that.
For any athlete in almost any sport, there is a lot of grunting. It's just magnified on a tennis court because the audience is quiet. Have any of you ever heard a football field when there is no crowd to add noise? It sounds like a gigantic man orgy.
When I started playing at age 5, I was grunting. Not because of the popularity, but I had to put all my strength into swinging a midsize racket. Fast forward to my final year of Division 1 college tennis, and I was still grunting... It was just while I was serving 125 mph serves and dodging bullets served by 6 foot 6 Germans.