Belarusian Victoria Azarenka is a tennis player who screams loudly while playing on the court. In one of her games, the team registered a sound intensity of 95 decibels. This is not as much as the Portuguese Michelle Larcher de Brito (109 dB) or the Russian Maria Sharapova (105 dB), but she is still decent.
The British newspaper The Telegraph compared Azarenka’s screams to the sound heard as the train passes through the station. The media often raised this topic at the Victoria press conferences, which the Belarusian did not particularly like. Once at Wimbledon 2015, Azarenka responded very harshly to journalists who bothered her.
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Victoria Azarenka’s best result at Wimbledon is the semifinals in 2011 and 2012. She came closest to repeating it in 2015, when she reached the quarterfinals. At this stage, her Victoria imposed a fight on the future champion Serena Williams, but she lost in three sets: 6: 3, 2: 6, 3: 6).
Count for personal meetings was 3-17. Victoria was in great shape and would certainly have outplayed any other opponent, but against the extremely awkward Williams, she had to cover her racket.
Victoria Azarenka at Wimbledon 2015
Photo: Ian Walton/Getty Images
During the match, the spectators laughed at the tennis players for the sounds they make on the court. Serena is known for her aggressive yelling, which intensifies as stress and physical exertion increase. It happens that she reaches a force of less than 90 decibels.
It so happened that at the press conference, perhaps the main topic of discussion was the screaming of Azarenka and Williams, and not a very high-quality game in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament. Serena responded quite calmly, but she made it clear that she didn’t want to talk about it.
“I feel like the public made fun of me for the loud yelling? Ah everything. I don’t want to discuss it anymore. I’m tired. I still need to take an ice bath. If you have any other questions, please ask, but not about this,” Serena said.
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But Azarenka was seriously upset by the annoying reproach in the screams.
“I am so sick of these questions every time. It’s annoying because men yell too. I trained alongside Rafael Nadal, and his screams are louder than mine. Do something meaningful. Stop bringing up this stupid topic all the time. Leave the yelling and staring alone: watch the game. The game spoke louder today.
Also, if people laughed, we gave them a good show. For me, it doesn’t matter at all. I go out on the court to show my best game and I fight with all my might. Serena and everyone else is doing the same,” Azarenka said.
Rafael Nadal on the court screams as loud as the loudest tennis players
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Azarenka rightly noted that some representatives of men’s tennis also complain loudly on the court. In particular, the shouts of the aforementioned Nadal and Novak Djokovic sometimes exceed 100 decibels of force. However, the criticism is directed mainly against girls.
Interestingly, the topic of the loud shouts of the tennis players at Wimbledon 2015 was also raised by the former first racket in the world Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who reproached his compatriot Maria Sharapova after defeating the Kazakh Zarina Diyas (6:4, 6:4). in the fourth round.
“Well, can you yell like that on the court? It’s unbearable to listen, honestly,” Kafelnikov wrote on social media, meeting with criticism of Maria’s followers in the comments.
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon 2015
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
In the 2015 Wimbledon semifinal, Serena Williams defeated Sharapova 6-2, 6-4 in straight sets. This time, the subject of the screaming was muted. Probably because the tennis players themselves have previously made it clear that they do not want to talk about this.
The shouting match is one of the most popular in tennis. Legendary 18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova called Sharapova and Serena’s moaning an on-court fraud to distract opponents and called on the WTA to combat it. Many fans don’t like them because they interfere with the peace of mind of watching the game.
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Navratilova’s position was supported by some well-known players, but according to the rules, making loud noises is not prohibited, so there is no reason to punish athletes. Legendary coach Nick Bollettieri, who named the top 10 rackets in the world, on the other hand, believed that deliberate silence when hitting makes it difficult to breathe properly. It is not surprising that many of the most “loud” tennis players studied at his academy (Monica Seles, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova).
The moans of tennis players have been the subject of research and scientific articles. “Screaming” players claim that the moan on the exhalation, which falls on the blow, increases its strength. This is confirmed by the findings of scientists. In particular, researchers from the University of Nebraska during experiments found that with a strong exhalation, the impact force increases by 3.8%. Scientists did not find any disadvantages in such a technique and even advised representatives of other sports to experiment with shouting.
