Favila: Why all the noise about all the noise in women's tennis?

It was another great Williams sister battle at Wimbledon on Saturday as Serena swept Venus to win her third singles championship.

I enjoy watching tennis. I fell in love with the game back when I was a teenager and John McEnroe was the talk of the tennis world with his brash, reckless, in-your-face attitude.

I also enjoyed watching the classic women's battles between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. These two tennis greats raged wars on the court that still live on in even today.

And I see a lot of similarities now when I watch the Williams sister duke it out. Both are extraordinary athletes that bring out the best in each other and give the fans something to cheer about.

Unfortunately, instead of focusing on the Williams sisters' game, it's their grunts and groans that has the tennis world abuzz.

It's pretty hard to ignore the noise as each sister lets loose a loud grunt upon hitting the ball. Personally, the noise doesn't really bother me. To me, athletes making noise during a game or sporting event is part of the game.

But at The All England Lawn Tennis Club all this grunting, groaning, ughing and oohing is getting on the fans' nerves and causing quite the uproar.

Of course all this noisemaking is nothing new to tennis. Remember Monica Seles? She was the first tennis athlete I can recall who made noise when she played. In fact her "ayee!" was practically a trademark for the talented young star back in the early ‘90s.

And while I do remember a bit of uproar over Seles back then, I don't remember it getting to the level it has lately.

At a match earlier in the week, several Wimbledon fans could be seen holding up signs calling for silence on the court. And several tennis athletes themselves have called for a noise ban. Even former tennis athletes like Navratilova have spoken out against all the noise.

But what's the big deal? Supposedly athletes claim the noise is a distraction. But La Feria tennis coach Juan Hernandez doesn't see it that way.

"To me, a distraction would be if one of the athletes was making noise prior to the serve to distract the server," he said. "However, what most of these women are doing is making noise after the serve or once the ball is in play. The noise they make at this point is just part of the game.

"What's more, it's no coincidence that the players complaining are the ones who end up losing. Of course they're gonna say the noise was distracting" Hernandez went on to say.

But distractions aside, I think the real problem is the fans themselves. I mean what do you expect from a bunch of snooty, pompous Brits?

All this noise is simply barbaric and uncouth (raise your pinky here). I mean how dare these athletes step foot in the All England Club and make such a racket (get those noses in the air).

After all it was also at Wimbledon where years ago Andre Agassi was considered much too unsophisticated to participate at one time. Remember the uproar his denim shorts created when he first burst onto the tennis scene?

Image may be everything, but that image better be dressed in tennis whites when playing at Wimbledon.

It's really too bad that this whole noise issue has clouded such a marvelous tournament.

Maybe the ones complaining are the ones who need to be quiet.

Dave Favila is senior sportswriter for Valley Freedom Newspapers. He can be reached at davidf@valleystar.com or at 956-430-6214