Russian teenager Maria Sharapova was ordered to tone down her grunting during her 6-3, 6-2 victory on Wednesday over Nathalie Dechy in the second round of the DFS Classic grass-court tournament.
The 16-year-old Sharapova, considered one of the most promising young players in the game, was warned by tournament officials after Dechy and players on an adjacent court complained about her high-pitched shrieks.
WTA Tour supervisor Donna Kelso and tournament referee Denise Parnell came onto the court to ask Sharapova to lower the volume.
Under the sport’s ”hindrance” rule, a player can be penalised a point for excessive grunting.
Sharapova’s noise level declined briefly, but after three points she went back to loud grunting. Dechy then complained to chair umpire Kim Craven.
”It was one of the loudest [grunts] I have heard,” the French player said. ”But I just played my match and tried not to care about it.”
Sharapova’s standard of play after the warning did not suffer.
Her flat ground strokes carried her to the best win of her short career.
Sharapova is louder than Monica Seles, who was warned about her grunting at Wimbledon a decade ago.
”It’s difficult for me because I have been doing this since I was four,” the Russian said. ”But I have to think about how I can control it. If you get a complaint you just have to try to make people happy.
”I don’t necessarily like it when I watch it on TV, but it is just automatic for me. But it’s not going to be a major concern.”
In other matches, second-seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece defeated American Meilen Tu, 7-5, 6-1, and No. 3 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria beat Britain’s Jane O’Donoghue, 6-2, 6-4.
Alexandra Stevenson seeded No. 7, lost 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to Virginie Razzano of France. – Sapa-AP