During Serena Williams’ 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Victoria Azarenka, the Centre Court crowd actually broke into laughter during a very intense—and yes, loud—point between the two shotmakers.
As video above shows, fans actually break out in laughter when Williams elevates her decibel level on a pair of forehands, which is pretty unheard of for a Centre Court crowd.
Was this the Centre Court crowd’s way of saying that they disapproved of the women grunting? This writer can’t recall there being any instances of the Centre Court faithful laughing at males grunting, so it begs the question: Is Wimbledon’s Centre Court crowd disapproving of female grunting and not male grunting? Is there a double-standard at play?
Do the fans assume that Rafael Nadal needs to grunt when he plays but Serena Williams should just keep quiet?
During post-match pressers, both players were asked how they felt about it. Azarenka spoke at length on the subject, and she made quite a bit of sense. “I'm so tired of these questions all the time,” she said. “It's so in a way annoying because guys grunt. I was practicing next to Nadal, and he grunts louder than me, and nobody notices that. Why? I don't understand why.”
“Because the women on the court both trying their hardest and giving everything they have, and they make a noise. Is that a problem of tennis? It happens in every sport. So I think maybe it's time to just put it aside and not talk about it all the time because this is not what is important when there are two players playing on the Centre Court. We got to look a little bit past that and see, ‘Oh, my God, Serena played 24 aces.’ Did any of the guys do maybe in that match? Look at the good stuff. Stop bringing this ridiculous stuff. Let's put aside the noise and how she looks, and look at the game. The game proved itself today.”
When asked to react to the fact that the fans broke out in laughter during one of their points, Azarenka said the crowd is perhaps “hydrating” too much.
Q. I appreciate what you're saying, but did you find it distracting from the crowd? They were actually laughing during points. I think it was directed at both you and Serena. They're laughing while the point is being played. Did you find that distracting?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think they might have had a little too many of Pimm's or whatever. When people are drinking, every time the announcer says, ‘Make sure you hydrate yourself,’ I think he means with water, not with alcohol. So if they were laughing, that means in a way we put on a good show. For me, it doesn't matter. I'm there to play my best and try my hardest, and that's what I'm going to do. That's what Serena does. That's what every other woman out there is doing.
Williams was asked about the crowd laughing as well:
Q. Do you feel it's disrespectful?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't know if that's the correct word to use. I don't think it's done in a disrespectful way. I just know that, as today, me and Vika, we were just giving our all out there. Literally we gave everything that we had. So, yeah.
Q. Victoria said it seemed a bit unfair because she was training next to Nadal the other day and said he grunts much louder than she does. It seems like it's something that happens when women play rather than the men.
SERENA WILLIAMS: I'm done with controversy. I can't. I'm tired. I have to do ice bath. If you have any other questions, I'm cool, but, you know, I'm done with that.