Tennis Life's Insider Blog: Gisela and the Screamer

4:07 PM

Argentine beauty, Gisela Dulko who is as well known for the men she’s been linked with, Fernando Gonzalez, Fernando Verdasco, and Tommy Robredo, as her tennis, sent the screamer, Maria Sharapova packing today on center court at Wimbledon. With the crowd clearly behind her, the 45^th ranked Dulko won without shrieking, shouting, screaming, or grunting. Good on you Gisela! What a pleasure to see someone win with just good solid play and no histrionics.

Has anyone every told Sharapova how annoying and unflattering all that screaming is? You can’t get a decent photo of her without her mouth wide open and face contorted looking like she is watching a most frightening, bloody horror film.

And speaking of the screamer is all that noise really necessary? Sharapova is the worst offender, but Serena comes in with a close second, and the tighter a match gets the higher the decibel. Azarenka emits a high ear piercing squeal, that I’m sure has dogs for miles around running for cover. Ivanovic sounds like a baby crying; well lately her game is enough to make anyone cry, so maybe this is legit. But I have to ask, is this tennis or martial arts?

Have they been training with Bruce Lee? Practitioners of martial arts use the “Kia” this is the shout used to release power or “chi” and to frighten the opponent, and I do admit, that when Serena lets out one of those screams, it is frightening.

I’m trying to remember if this whole trend started with Monica Seles. That era was a little before I started working in tennis, but I do remember reading that Martina Navratalova did complain about her, and Martina has called for umpires to get tough on this and turn down the volume.

I wonder what would happen to a fan that screamed every time a player hit the ball. I’m sure they would be immediately ejected. Why should people who pay big dollars... GBP or Euros be subjected to this behavior?

Just so you don’t think that I’m picking on the girls, some of the guys can also make some noise, but the truth is those grunts are not nearly as annoying as the shrieking from the females.

6:44 PM

Okay, enough about the noise, I’ve just come back from shooting some of Sam Querrey’s match against the Croatian player Marin Cilic. Sam was up one set to love, serving for the second set, lost that game, and I left. I notice now that Cilic won that set in a breaker, and they are just starting the third. This is not looking good for Querrey.

7:10 PM

Tommy Haas almost ran right into going up to the second floor balcony in the media center. This is not a bad thing to have happen to a girl. Decided to follow him up and grab a few snaps while he is being interviewed for German TV. He’s going to be playing in the Los Angeles Open next month and I may need a nice head shot. I’m rewarded by also getting a few pix of Fernando Verdasco who is doing Spanish TV.