I despise Serena's animal sounds

Last post 07-03-2009, 8:09 PM by Scoop. 5 replies.
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  •  07-03-2009, 3:38 AM 479880

    I despise Serena's animal sounds

    I am not a fan of the sounds that come out of the loudest female tennis grunters, but some are worse than others.  I do find the sounds that come out of Serena, Venus and Sharapova (De Brito too) worse than most because it sounds like they are trying to intimidate their opponents at the same time they are supposedly pushing themselves.  The other women have high pitched sounds, but when Serena gets under pressure, she growls like an angry animal and I find it truly obnoxious.  The competition between Dementieva and Serena in the semi-final was fantastic, but Serena was growling like a wild animal and after she won certain big points and one in particular in the second set really took the cake.  She made a noise like an animal who had just eaten the flesh of her prey with blood and guts hanging out of her mouth and she extended it for the crowd and for Dementieva to hear.  In my opinoin, that is not tennis.
  •  07-03-2009, 4:04 AM 479883 in reply to 479880

    Re: I despise Serena's animal sounds

    You're just looking for another reason to slam Serena aren't you? Like it or not (I don't really..the sounds I mean), she dug down deep like a champion should. Unlike the fraud who's ranked #1 now that went out with a wimper. All these girls grew up emulating Seles and think that shrieking actually helps them. Connors did the same thing but he was (so I heard) slightly asthmatic. Baseball has a steroids era and womens tennis has its grunting era. One day a champion player will come along who's quiet and little girls will copy her.
  •  07-03-2009, 12:28 PM 479941 in reply to 479883

    Re: I despise Serena's animal sounds

    I don't look for reasons to slam Serena.  I admire her for a lot of reasons.  I think she is remarkable athelete and seems like a delightful person in all her interviews.  Over the years, she has withstood tremendous pressure off the court and emerged with great dignity.  Nevertheless, the animal sounds I wrote about are very off-putting and I do believe they are part of her strategy.  Dementieva started to growl at times, but couldn't match it.
  •  07-03-2009, 1:24 PM 479954 in reply to 479941

    Re: I despise Serena's animal sounds

    It is not possible to endure a women's match anymore unless you have one of those noise suppressors  that the guys at airports wear. The shreiking has gotten out of control. Sharapova and deBrito are  the worst but  the others are pretty awful too. It is not in anyway necessary to shriek when you hit a tennis ball. The tour is afraid of offending the shriekers so they let  them get  away with it. When these women play it  sounds like Noah's Ark during rough seas.
  •  07-03-2009, 1:28 PM 479956 in reply to 479880

    Re: I despise Serena's animal sounds

    Did anyone else notice the woman in the "no grunting" hat during the Serena/Dementieva match? She picked the right/wrong match to wear that to depending on how you see it.

    Personally I am always bothered by how the grunting complaint is only applied to women. Gustavo K. had one of the most annoying sounds I've ever heard and very few people commented on it, and he was a staple top 20 player for many years. It was like a slowed-down "almost sneeze/cough/yawn" sound that just irked me. Other than that, male or female, no grunt bothered me more than Sharapova's. But I've grown used to it and hardly notice it.

    You were bothered by Serena's scream but not Dementieva's yelp/screech? So if Serena raises her pitch a bit you'll like it more? Most anti-grunters hate most sounds. That's where I'm confused because Serena screamed a lot less than Dementieva yelped in that match. Serena usually makes noise with physical exertion and mental anguish. Venus as well. 

    One friend of mine uses the closed caption option on their television, so they can read the commentary of the announcers and not hear the grunting. Worth looking into if it bothers you that. Or just mute and forget the commentary. Not much to miss anyway. :P


    ================================
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  •  07-03-2009, 8:09 PM 480024 in reply to 479956

    Re: I despise Serena's animal sounds

    You gotta love the intensity. She does use it for intimidation, that's what screams roars and come ons are all about. They are saying This is my domain, this is my territory, I'm winning this match, what are you gonna do about it? Massive displays of intensity like that, like Serena's roaring are part of the war over territory. Next part of the evolution hopefully will not be players physically marking their territory like wild animals :)

    Expressing intensity is a form of joy and freedom to release such poweful emotions. It can overwhelm certain players, I have used this kind of intensity in some of my matches and it has helped. I mean one time I was down 3-5 in first set of a tournament, and got fired up from a bad call and playing almost as intense as Serena/Hewitt, and proceeded to win the match 75 60, it all turned around from turning up the intensity and roaring on the court :)

     







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