SALES OF EARPLUGS in the vicinity of SW19 could be set to plummet, after Wimbledon chief Ian Ritchie told certain female players to stop grunting so loudly during matches.

The chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC) told the Daily Telegraph that fans are annoyed by the constant female shrieking made famous by the likes of Monica Seles in the 1990s.

Ritchie blamed the youth of today for the problem, and more specifically the Belarussian star Victoria Azarenka. Noise machines recorded grunts of 95 decibels during her first round match against Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova, caterwauls that would last up to 1.5 seconds on each shot she played.

That was until the rain came to give some respite to the deafened spectators.

“The players have an ability to complain about it, if one player is grunting too much and the other player doesn’t like it and it is distracting, they can complain to the umpire,” he said

“We have discussed it with the tours and we believe it is helpful to reduce the amount of grunting. We are one tournament in a global circuit. But we have made our views clear and we would like to see less of it.”

At time of writing, plans to stage all matches inside a noise-proof bubble were said to be “formative at best.”

For more information read this story in today’s Daily Telegraph >