[Don Ro]

If you're on one side of the net and you get one chance to pound the ball with all of your might, grunting would create a more powerful stroke and a faster ball.
Now, imagine doing that for 3+ hours. Players like Rafa Nadal and Dominic Thiem, this yrs. French Open final, unloaded with all of their might on 90% (a guess) of their strokes.
About the only way an opponent can even compete with Nadal is to unload on each stroke.
This is only one way that Nadal wears down his opponents...physically. The other way is mentally...self-doubt and discouragement.
At that level, the athletes are super fit...they need to be in order to pound the ball on each stroke.
I played the USTA No. Cal. pro tennis circuit back in the days (80's - 90's), and even I and others would grunt now/then,
I don't mind the men grunting, it's the women's screams that bug me.
I often mute a Sharapova match and turn on closed caption.
BTW, her 2018 net worth: $125 mill.
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Federer grunts now/then, just not loudly.
In the early days of Monica Seles there was a players petition going around...wanting grunting/screaming to be penalized.
Nothing came of it.
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