2023-05-31 07:10:07
“Ouahaaaaan”, “aaaaaaah”… These cries of tennis players are easier to hear than to write. Some have even become iconic, especially at Roland-Garros, such as the two-parter of Rafael Nadal, fourteen times Porte d’Auteuil winner, or even the more acute and strident one of the Russian Maria Sharapova, crowned twice in the Parisian Grand Slam. .
Regularly calculated at more than 90 dB, like those of the number 18 seed of this 2023 edition Victoria Azarenka, these cries at the time of the strike allow you to find the necessary relaxation at the time of impact to hit the ball harder. A study from the University of Kentucky also estimated that players could increase their striking power by almost 5% by shouting. But do we have the right to shout as much as we want?
The ATP and WTA regulations are not very clear on the subject. For the men’s circuit, it is point of regulation 7-F on “hindrance”, which can be translated as hindrance or distraction in French, which prevails. “Any distraction caused by a player may be considered deliberate and result in the loss of a point. Deliberate means that the player intended to do what caused the inconvenience or distraction,” the rule states. On the women’s circuit, point 7-H also considers that “any discomfort caused by a player deliberately results in the loss of a point”.
“At the discretion of the referee…”
But do we really want to bother the opponent with a shout? This is the whole question that the referee must ask himself when interpreting this rule. The French Tennis Federation in its manual for referees explains that, if a player complains of being embarrassed by his opponent’s shouting, “the decision is left to the discretion of the referee, who, if he considers that there has been actual embarrassment, may pronounce a let (point to be replayed) or give a lost point to the player who shouted if he considers that this was intentional”.
To help the referee in his assessment, it is especially necessary to observe and listen if the cry of the player lasts too long, especially after having hit the ball, or if it has passed to the other side of the net. The embarrassment is effective when the player prepares his next racquet shot while his opponent’s shout is not yet finished.
In fact, very few players can boast of having been sanctioned for having shouted on a tennis court. In May 2016, the Dutch tennis player, Robin Haase, had received a penalty point against Gonzalo Lama, because he had started to imitate the cries of his opponent, in a very exaggerated way. What necessarily hinder his opponent …
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