Planting Seeds, Gauging Grunts
The Wimbledon seeds are out. I am not surprised in the least that Rafael Nadal is at the top spot as the No. 1 seed. Very little was done in the changing of the men’s seeds. Verdasco moves from 8 to 7, Safin moves up to 15 and Dr. Ivo from 31 to 23.
Pretty much, it looks like they kept to the rankings. I think they could have done a bit more, but regardless, everyone’s placement seems to reflect their current rankings.
On the other hand, I was pretty shocked to see Dinara Safina, even though she is ranked No. 1 in the world, to be placed as the No. 1 seed. She has never done that well at Wimbledon and Venus Williams, the two time defending champion and five-time Wimbledon winner, stays at No. 3? I would have put the Williams Sisters at 1 and 2 with Safina at No. 3, but they didn’t ask me.
The women completely followed the rankings, except for one very interesting case. Maria Sharapova, No. 59 in the world, took a big leap up to the No. 24 seed. If they were going to move her up like they did, why not go all the way to the top ten? She’s clearly better than the 24th seed spot.
I know there’s a formula for the men’s seeds. For example, if you’re outside the seedings no matter what on the men’s side, you cannot be seeded. This is not the case on the women’s side.
Let’s talk grunting. Big props to Martina Navratilova for starting the ball rolling at her ITF Achievement Awards speech. She personifies professionalism and you never heard any of the greats during her era make one grunt. It’s going to be very tough to implement a grunting rule for players that have been doing it a long time. I think starting the rule at the junior level might help, but I still don’t think the grunts are good for the game. It’s not good for TV, it’s not good for the fans, nobody likes it, except the grunters.
A simple warning, for the first loud one and point penalty there after will get the grunting to stop. It’s too much, stop the grunts and get on with the game.
Crossing the pond tomorrow morning, draw comes out Friday for much better analysis. I still think it’s a 3 horse race in the end: Federer, Nadal and Murray. But let’s wait until we see the draw and hope it’s interesting. Most importantly, let’s hope for some good weather: maybe the new roof will change the forecast.
Why don’t you call a spade a spade? It isn’t “grunting” that is the problem, it’s shrieking, screaming, yelling, growling and howling that continues well after the ball has been struck as a technique to distract the opponent. A grunt, which can be an involuntary expulsion of low-volume sound in response to the stress of exertion in hitting a ball, is natural, barely audible and unobjectionable. You need a translator, an editor and a lie-detector.
Comment by Joseph B. Stahl — June 19, 2009 @ 1:02 am
We all know what he is referring too…… And I think we all can agree with him. I mean, this has been going on for too long. Leading the charge prom princess sharapova, and others are just ridiculous. I sometimes hope that one day enough people will abandon their games and they would step on the court to find and empty stadium. Somebody should ask them why do they need to scream, not grunt, Scream at EVERY Point. They cant say its a habit cos a lot of time few games are played when no sound is made. Point penalty is the best way to reduce this. Enough is enough.
Comment by Jigar — June 20, 2009 @ 7:04 am
I agree with Brad’s praise of Martina and his “disgruntlement” of said grunts. However, to be accurate, it was Monica Seles who came on the pro scene while Martina was still playing which was upsetting to Martina towards the end of her playing career. She has been most consistent in complaining about grunting as far back as the late ’80’s, that it was a distinct advantage for the one doing the grunting and a distraction to the oppenent. So,it is not a new concept for Martina to ask that it be eradicated. Even in post-retirement Martina still remains a champion and as candid as ever!
Comment by Diane M. Grassi — July 4, 2009 @ 2:37 am