Let us all hope that the gods of tennis see to it that Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka never meet in a Wimbledon final, or any other final for that matter.* It would pose a serious occupational health and safety risk for the lines people and ball kids and the spectators would need to be issued with industrial strength earmuffs.
This is one of the conclusions I drew during my day at Wimbledon – before it rained.
It was a big tick off the bucket list for me to make it to Wimbledon. It was also a big hole in the spending money reserves of my European holiday to purchase a hospitality package with a night’s accommodation in a London hotel and a court-side seat. I couldn’t afford Centre Court (although I now wish I had stretched the budget) so settled for a day out at Court 2, sometimes known as the graveyard court due to its reputation as a scene of upsets.
There I watched half a set of Azarenka’s match on Court 2. Every time she makes contact with the ball she emits a ridiculous noise at very high volume – something like wah-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee. Obviously this noise is difficult to spell accurately.
Can you imagine a long rally with this at one end and Sharapova going ‘Eeeeeeeeekkkk!’ on every stroke at the other end? At Roland Garros recently Sharapova’s shrieks could be heard from outside the stadium court she was playing on. I know because I was there. I heard her.
If this shrieking match-up ever comes to fruition the only option would be to watch on TV with the sound turned down or not watch at all and pretend it isn’t happening. And I’m not the only one who thinks this shrieking is getting out of hand. An AAP report noted that, during the match I was watching on Wimbledon Court 2, Miss Azarenka shrieked at 95 decibels. Ridiculous.
Noise and huge crowds aside, it had been a long-time ambition of mine to visit Wimbledon and today it finally happened. From my seat on Court 2 I got to watch matches involving Venus Williams and Gael Monfils (who I also saw at the recent French Open) before Azarenka took to the court.
To take a break from the matches, and to give my ears a rest, I visited the Wimbledon museum. There I saw many holy tennis relics, most notably the shoes worn by Stefan Edberg during his glorious triumph over Boris Becker in the 1988 men’s singles final.
They also had the shoes Becker wore during his win over Edberg in the 1989 final re-match but, hey who cares?
From the Travels with my Teddy archive – I visited Wimbledon for the first day of play in 2011. Rain washed out play from late afternoon.
* Of course the dreaded Azarenka V Sharapova shriek off did take place at the Australian Open final in January 2012 with Azarenka taking out her first Grand Slam title and securing the World Number 1 ranking. During the match Sharapova’s shrieks were measured at 105 decibels and Azarkenda reaching 95 decibels in an effort matching her Wimbledon performance. I was away on a hiking weekend and tuned in via radio – until I got a headache.