So it seems the genteel clean starched underwear crowd at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club is miffed because some of the world's world class women's tennis players - Maria Sharapova, for example - excessively grunt and scream to punctuate their play.
The gall! But it actually comes from the complainers, not the players. The noise, which approaches 100 decibels at times, is a distraction, claim purists, so much so that officials have taken to nudging players to tone it down a bit. "We believe it is helpful to reduce the amount of grunting," said Club Chief Executive Ian Ritchie.
Would we even be having this discussion if the overly excitable players were male? Male athletes celebrate and gesticulate and pontificate about practically every move they make on the field or court or ice. It's one thing to mark a goal or touchdown with a well executed acknowledgement of the crowd or the theatrical skyward thrust of the fists. I've seen a nifty 15-yard on the knees goal celebration slide or two during recent soccer action on ESPN.
The accomplishment bar has been lowered considerably. If you don't trip over the baseline heading to the pitcher's mound, or collide with a teammate coming over the boards during a shift change in hockey, they throw you a parade. Why shouldn't female athletes be able to celebrate similarly?
Did someone mount an off-Broadway Victorian Era revival I wasn't aware of? Someone get Billie Jean King on the phone.
