The first time I saw Errani serve I couldn't believe it. So slow! Barely breaking 100km/h! Such a terrible action! And yet, as Medvedev discovered, that can be ridiculously hard to handle because you overtry.
But what gets overlooked is what an incredible (women's) doubles player she is. Her hands at net are so quick and her instincts for when to cross and when to approach are so good. People hit the ball at her in rallies: she puts it away. People try to keep the ball away from her: she intercepts. People try to lob her: she gets it, or Paolini is there to clean up. It's incredibly enjoyable to watch her because she is both the closest to a club player and yet so much, much better than anyone watching. I really enjoy watching her doubles matches because it shows the average player how you win doubles.
Thanks for another great profile. I had forgotten that Errani reached such singles heights once upon a time. I do remember watching her vex a number of harder hitting WTA players back in the day, but nothing beats the match with Medvedev.
Errani's doubles success with Paolini is fun to see, especially if you're a Paolini fan, and it's cool that Errani is capping off a long career with this kind of success at her age -- but her grunt is SO BAD. I'm tired of having to watch certain players on mute because of their grunting/screaming (Errani, Sabalenka, Mayar Sherif, and then Alcaraz and Sonego on the men's side). At some point, the tennis world *must* know the grunts/screams make the sport less appealing to casual fans (just look at any of the comments on YouTube highlight reels for the previously-mentioned folks. I clicked on a random Sherif video and the first comment is "How can that grunt not be considered hindrance? Professional tennis is the most mismanaged sport there is. They could easily stop this screaming...") Anyway, Errani's recent year of doubles has been fun to watch (on mute).
I do think the grunting could be made less objectionable with technical help— I wonder if this has been explored by the audio engineers. When you see these matches in persons, the grunting is barely noticeable in the context of the ambient noise of the crowd. For some reason, though it seems people haven’t been complaining as much about grunting as they used to.
The first time I saw Errani serve I couldn't believe it. So slow! Barely breaking 100km/h! Such a terrible action! And yet, as Medvedev discovered, that can be ridiculously hard to handle because you overtry.
But what gets overlooked is what an incredible (women's) doubles player she is. Her hands at net are so quick and her instincts for when to cross and when to approach are so good. People hit the ball at her in rallies: she puts it away. People try to keep the ball away from her: she intercepts. People try to lob her: she gets it, or Paolini is there to clean up. It's incredibly enjoyable to watch her because she is both the closest to a club player and yet so much, much better than anyone watching. I really enjoy watching her doubles matches because it shows the average player how you win doubles.
Thanks for another great profile. I had forgotten that Errani reached such singles heights once upon a time. I do remember watching her vex a number of harder hitting WTA players back in the day, but nothing beats the match with Medvedev.
Errani's doubles success with Paolini is fun to see, especially if you're a Paolini fan, and it's cool that Errani is capping off a long career with this kind of success at her age -- but her grunt is SO BAD. I'm tired of having to watch certain players on mute because of their grunting/screaming (Errani, Sabalenka, Mayar Sherif, and then Alcaraz and Sonego on the men's side). At some point, the tennis world *must* know the grunts/screams make the sport less appealing to casual fans (just look at any of the comments on YouTube highlight reels for the previously-mentioned folks. I clicked on a random Sherif video and the first comment is "How can that grunt not be considered hindrance? Professional tennis is the most mismanaged sport there is. They could easily stop this screaming...") Anyway, Errani's recent year of doubles has been fun to watch (on mute).
My wife, who has little interest in tennis, refers to Azarenka as The Dove because of her unique grunt.
I do think the grunting could be made less objectionable with technical help— I wonder if this has been explored by the audio engineers. When you see these matches in persons, the grunting is barely noticeable in the context of the ambient noise of the crowd. For some reason, though it seems people haven’t been complaining as much about grunting as they used to.
That's a great idea re tech help to minimize it if possible. From what I can tell re the fewer complaints, I think people might just be resigned to it by this point? Ten years ago, the WTA and ATP were discussing bans on it, but appeared to just give up after that point. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/sports/tennis/womens-tennis-association-to-tackle-excessive-grunting.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/11/sports/tennis/a-wish-list-for-the-new-tennis-year.html