11/23/24
May 29, 2009
Grunting Girl Makes Quite a Racket at French Open: Fans at Roland Garros got an earful of first-time French Open qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito, 16, of Portugal. "Grunting is an inadequate term to describe the extended, high-pitched wails that De Brito produces during and after most strokes," the New York Times reports, along with audio. Her third-round opponent Aravane Rezai complained to the umpire about the noise.
I love that there's a person modeling a ball gag on Wikipedia. Her parents must be proud.
posted by rcade at 09:02 PM on May 29, 2009
Racket. Quite a racket. The day is yours, rcade, but I will be back with larger, more dangerous puns.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:05 PM on May 29, 2009
I think the NYT screwed up and used a porn soundtrack. An ex of mine used to make that sound...
posted by Drood at 12:02 AM on May 30, 2009
Of course I wasn't always there at the time, cheating cow...
posted by Drood at 12:02 AM on May 30, 2009
ball gags...porn...cheating cow...what were we talking about? Oh, yea, tennis.
This goes beyond acceptable, and is clearly a technique aimed at distracting her opponent. They ought to make her wear that ball gag.
posted by dviking at 12:07 AM on May 30, 2009
I remember the fuss when Monica Seles made her sounds. This chick is just nuts! And why do the feel they have to do it? Is it a psychological thing to mess with their opponent? Or is it some weird physiological thing that helps them?
Regardless, it sounds idiotic. Pretty soon they'll be having full on orgasms with each hit.
posted by Drood at 12:13 AM on May 30, 2009
I agree that the shrieks, no matter who they are from, has always stood out to me to be a distraction while viewing matches. However, as the article states, this is nothing new in womens tennis. Larcher de Brito did bring up a good point when saying, "You know, when she was winning, she never complained. Only when I started to get my game going, I started winning games, then all of a sudden, you know, my noise is a nuisance."
And the fact that this part of her game has been known, and talked about before, it should not be much of a surprise now. Certainly not a reason to cause her to walk off the court in tears because the crowd is booing her because of it. If the tennis world wants to deter any player from grunting, shrieking, yelling, then they must not only implement the rule but actually enforce it. Losing points during important matches speaks louder than any shriek.
I did laugh at the track and at the jokes here, but I know that if I were put onto the clay and asked to play tennis at that level, I may be screaming like a 16-year-old too.
posted by BoKnows at 12:47 AM on May 30, 2009
Has there ever been a grunting golfer?
posted by rcade at 12:03 PM on May 30, 2009
Has there ever been a grunting golfer? Gotta be a John Daly joke somewhere in there.
As to grunting versus the shrieks, the grunting is fairly normal, this girl's shrieks are not. And, she seems to do it on every shot, Seles just did it on power shots.
posted by dviking at 12:46 PM on May 30, 2009
There is nothing wrong with the sounds she makes. That really shouldn't distract you while watching a tennis match. For me it pretty much isn't a women's tennis match unless you hear that. You even hear it in video games lol. I remember this Nintendo 64 mario tennis game. All the girls did that sound.
wfrazerjr : That picture is just hilarious. Haha.
posted by STUNNER at 10:27 PM on May 30, 2009
Doesn't sound much worse than Sharapova the Shriek.
posted by aerotive at 12:20 AM on May 31, 2009
So I ask a serious question about whether it's for a psychological advantage or it's a physiological thing and... Crickets.
Figures:)
posted by Drood at 04:46 PM on May 31, 2009
So I ask a serious question about whether it's for a psychological advantage or it's a physiological thing and... Crickets.
Figures:)
Then maybe you need to stop asking serious questions, ge'ez, what's wrong with you? You act as if this was your first time on SpoFi, com'on man!! Get with the program! Didn't you see how this thread started off?
posted by BornIcon at 07:44 AM on June 01, 2009
Simple fix.