WTA:”Queens of Screams” – The Five Loudest Groaners

Screaming until the doctor arrives is the motto of these five loud players.

By Christian Albrecht Barschel

For some fans it is simply noise nuisance and takes away the joy of playing, for others it has become part of tennis. We are talking about excessive moaning in women’s tennis, the “Queens of Screams”. There are some players who come to the 100 decibel mark with their screams and moans – or even above. According to researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of Hawaii, players who moan excessively during rallies have an advantage. In a study, the researchers investigated the volume effect on the perception of the opposing players. In the case of a noise disturbing from the outside, the reactions of the opponent’s players are slower and less precise, according to the study. Those who complain about the moans of their opponents during the rally seem to be confirmed by this study.

Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki criticized the excessive moaning of some of their colleagues in the past:”I think there are some players who do it deliberately. They don’t do it in practice, then come into the match and moan. I think the officials should stop it. If you moan very loudly, the opponent can’t hear how you hit the ball. Because the moaning is so loud, you think the ball’s coming fast. But suddenly he arrives very slowly. In tight moments, the moaning may help to be less nervous,”Wozniacki told her a few years ago. WTA is working on a solution to discipline the excessive moaning of future generations of players. It’s time for us to get excessive moans for future generations out of the game,”WTA boss Stacey Allaster said in 2012.

However, for some noisy players this rule is too late. We present the five loudest female groaners in women’s tennis.

Monica Seles was the pioneer of excessive moaning in women’s tennis and played at a volume that triggered a violent discussion at the time. Seles commented on her moaning in 2012 as follows:”I started it when I was eight years old. I moaned when I was number 83. I moaned when I was number one. I know I’ve always played with my heart full. That was just my style of playing. I fought for every ball. When you see old video footage of me when I was 12 or 14, I moaned at the same opponents. But when I became number one, it became a problem.”

In the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1992, Martina Navratilova complained to the referee about the volume of the then 18-year-old Seles, who then phased out the moaning:”I didn’t want everyone to be mad at me, I didn’t know what to do. It was like changing my two-handed forehand. I just didn’t know how to play tennis without these loud cries every time you swing through,”Seles wrote in her biography “Getting a Grip” about this situation. Seles won the semi-final against Navratilova, but decided to lower her volume level in the final against Steffi Graf,”Big mistake. That was one of the few things I regretted in life,”explained Seles, who had no chance in the final against Graf 2:6,1:6.

Speaking about the moaning in women’s tennis, Seles said:”As long as you don’t moan to disturb your opponents, it’s okay. Whatever the officials decide, you have to accept it. The same goes for Wimbledon, where they decided to wear only white. So everybody plays in white. Whatever the rule of moaning is, in the end, players are paid to keep it up. You are there to make sure that the fans get the most fun and entertainment. If the fans don’t want to moan, you have to play without moaning. If the fans want to moan, then you play with moaning:” The fact that Seles was quite relaxed with the discussion about her moaning shows this advertising video, in which the US-American appears.

Maria Sharapova has always been called the “Queen of Screams”. The Russian comes regularly above the 100-decibel mark and thus moves in the noise range of a circular saw. The groaning and screaming of Sharapova has become almost accustomed to. From a great distance you can already hear when the tennis diva is standing on the court. When the WTA announced in 2012 that it was going to do something about the excessive moaning in women’s tennis, Sharapova supported this plan – but only for future generations of players:”When you get used to something young, you can’t get rid of it – no matter whether you moan or not. You can’t change your forehand or club attitude in the middle of your career completely,”explained the Russian.

Sharapova always insists that the moaning is from childhood to her companion on the tennis court “I have always moaned so loudly while playing tennis – as long as I can remember. I see this again and again in videos from the past,”said Sharapova. Curiously, their noise level was significantly lower in their first and probably greatest triumph, the 2004 Wimbledon victory, than in the following period. When she won the final against Serena Williams at the age of 17 on the “Holy Grass”, little of the huge shouting was heard neither in her nor in Williams.

The moaning of Victoria Azarenka is also unique. The typical scream of the Belarussian woman, which she releases with high decibel power every time she strikes, can also be heard in a song. The rapper Redfoo, member of the duo LMFAO and ex-boyfriend of the Belarussian, has mixed Azarenka’s scream into one song. Azarenka keeps defending her moans and comparing them to snoring,”This will accompany me throughout my entire career. But let’s just say, do you snore? Can you control this? There are ways, but they snore anyway. Right? That’s why it’s natural for her, right? Well, that’s why it’s natural for me, too. The way I play tennis,”Azarenka once told a reporter.

In addition, Azarenka considers the whole discussion about the moaning in women’s tennis to be completely exaggerated “I can’t speak for the other players. Not a single player came to me and said,’ Stop doing this. If someone wants to complain:’ I lost the match because of the moaning’, that’s their thing. I think they’re just weak people.”

Michelle Larcher de Brito is probably the loudest player on the court. The Portuguese woman’s record was 109 decibels in 2009. Not even a chainsaw or a truck can keep up. Larcher de Brito screams at tennis almost as loud as an angry lion screams. The 21-year-old is still waiting for her breakthrough on the WTA tour. She had her best year in 2009 when she was only 16 years old and reached the third round of the French Open. At that time, the Portuguese was heavily criticised by some of the players and the media for her vocal appearance on the pitch.

“I’m still 16 and I’m still learning. Maybe someday I’ll get it under control. I don’t know, but I’m trying. Seles did it, Sharapova does it. It’s coming from big players,”Larcher de Brito explained in an interview, and in another interview he said smugly:”I could stop doing that. But that would be unnatural. I’m a woman, and we’re not cut out to keep our mouths shut. No one can order me to stop this. Most recently, Larcher de Brito made a name for herself when she won the “scream fight” against Maria Sharapova in the second Wimbledon round in 2013. Afterwards, however, the young Portuguese lady was hardly heard of.

When the discussion about Larcher de Brito’s moaning was in full swing, Nick Bollettieri was criticized for having trained both the Scream Queens Seles, Sharapova and Larcher de Brito at his academy,”My employees and I never taught moaning. We have always taught the right technique to breathe in and out. Players moan because it helps to release energy and stay focused. It’s only natural. It’s nothing that is done specifically to harm the opponent,”Bollettieri defended himself.

Jovana Jaksic currently plays mainly on the ITF tour and mostly far away from the TV cameras. So there were no pictures of the 20-year-old Serbian defending 14 match points against the Austrian Tamira Paszek in the final of the ITF tournament in Surprise (USA) and winning 14 match points. If Jaksic, currently number 311 in the world, continues her ascent, she will certainly be on television more often in the near future and will be heard above all else. Her loud scream after each shot reminds a bit of a karate fighter. Here is a sample of the loud qualities of Jaksic.