Wimbledon 2015: shrieks of Maria Sharapova continue to deafen competition

When a shriek is recorded at over 100 decibels — the same scale as a lion roaring — something needs to be done.

Maria Sharapova returns a ball to Coco Vandeweghe during their singles match yesterday.

I LIVE in Richmond, southwest London, quite near the bridge. Richmond is on the flight path into Heathrow, so most days there is a regular roar of aircraft engines, about every three minutes. It is pretty loud from my place, though not as bad as for those who live by Richmond Green, where planes pass almost directly overhead.

But the funny thing is that you get used to it. You go through an entire day, an entire week, without noticing them. They drift into the background, like distant chatter. My wife, who was distracted by them when she first moved here, is totally oblivious to them today. It just goes to show how adaptable we humans are, how rapidly we adjust to our environment.

All of which brings me to Maria Sharapova. She burst on to the scene at Wimbledon 11 years ago, when she won the title as a 17-year-old and tried to phone her mother from Centre Court. It was a charming moment from a quite brilliant talent. Yet all these years on, after all these opportunities for adjustment and all the chances to adapt, few have got used to the loudest, most insistent and most unnecessary shriek in sport.

It eclipses the aircraft noise in Richmond. It goes well beyond the grunts of Rafael Nadal. It makes the strangulated cries of Monica Seles — who could be described as the originator of shrieking in women’s tennis — seem muted.

Given how long it has been going on, you might call this a non-story. But it shows, to me at least, how much of a story this is. A noise, distracting to opponents, infuriating to many fans, irritating even to those who live under the flight path, that just goes on. And on.

Sharapova’s opponent yesterday was a valiant young American called CoCo Vandeweghe, who was playing on Centre Court for the first time. The 23-year-old is ranked 47th in the world but has been in the form of her life, defeating Lucie Safarova, the No 6 seed, in straight sets in the previous round. Her composure was impressive from the start. Although she lost the opening set 6-3 and trailed 5-3 in the second, she kept battling, eventually coming back and taking the match into a deciding set after a pulsating tie-break.

But Sharapova is a fighter. The five-times grand-slam winner kept the ball in play, demonstrated clinical efficiency on key points at the start of the third set and raced into a 3-0 lead. She closed it out 6-2, but not before Vandeweghe had played a succession of shots that demonstrated her full potential. If she is not in the top 20 soon, it will be a huge surprise. As for Sharapova, she marches on into a semi-final contest with Serena Williams.

Maria Sharapova returns a ball to Coco Vandeweghe during their singles match yesterday.

But what about all this shrieking? Those who follow tennis, who are part and parcel of the tour, say that there is nothing to be done about it. Many players indulge in it, they say, including Victoria Azarenka, the former world No 1 who lost in three sets to Williams yesterday. I cannot help but disagree.

When a shriek is recorded at more than 100 decibels, as per Sharapova — which is on the same scale as a lion roaring — something needs to be done.

It is not as if this has not been flagged up before. No less a champion than Martina Navratilova was emphatic on the subject in 2009. “The grunting has reached an unacceptable level,” she said. “It is cheating, pure and simple.” She also made the point that when the noise is so loud, it drowns out the sound of ball on racket, making it impossible to gain an insight about spin and timing.

But I doubt anything will happen. Sharapova will shriek on, and those who would prefer to focus on her fine ability and nerve will be driven to distraction. It is just one of those noises that you cannot adjust to.

The Times