Garbine Muguruza rants over Maria Sharapova’s grunts during matches

Garbine Muguruza has called Maria Sharapova’s grunting during matches just too “loud.” The 22-year-old, who was recently honoured with Royal Order of Sports Merit, said Sharapova’s grunts were loud enough to cause her distraction.

“Sometimes, Sharapova shouts loud enough that it seems that the ball goes faster,” Muguruza said in an interview with Hormiguero TV Show. “Often, she does it to intimidate us, her screams distract me, even I do it, but I don’t shout loud enough like her.”

An article about grunting in tennis featured on Shape.com said that the noise that female tennis players make on the tennis court serves a purpose. The shrieks that the players make when they hit a ball “mask the sound of the echo of the ball that can give opponents an aural cue of where it is headed.” Some of the female tennis players who grunt during matches, in addition to Sharapova, are Williams sisters - Serena and Venus, and former top-ranked Belarusian player Victoria Azarenka.

Muguruza and Sharapova had played three times in their careers, with the Russian emerging victorious in all those clashes. Muguruza had won two sets against Sharapova in their previous meetings. She first met the five-time grand slam champion in the Round of 32 of the 2013 Rome Open when she lost in straight sets 6-2 6-2. Their second meeting took place in the last eight of the 2014 French Open 1-6 7-5 6-1 where Sharapova also won her second French Open title. Muguruza last played the Russian in the Round of 32 of the Montreal event last year 4-6 6-3 6-1.

In other news, Muguruza will be one of the first players to play in night matches on grass court at a tennis event in Mallorca, Reuters reported. The event is organised by E|motion Management, which also runs the men’s event in Stuttgart, Germany. It will be held around the same time as the Aegon Classic Championship in Birmingham.

Following a successful 2015 season, Muguruza ended her season ranked as World No. 3, her career-high singles rank. She won her second career title beating Timea Bacsinszky in the Beijing finale 7-5 6-4 in October.