Wozniacki, Sharapova moving along, not always quietly, at Wimbledon
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Caroline Wozniacki is the top-seeded women’s player at Wimbledon and yet little attention has come her way. She has moved to the third round with little trouble or notice.
On Friday she won her second-round match over Virginie Razzano of France 6-1, 6-3. She played on Court 2, the one that defending champion Serena Williams had felt insulted to be exiled to on Thursday. And, not that it gained rapid notice around the world, but Wozniacki wasn’t happy about it either.
‘Obviously I think I deserve to play on one of the bigger courts,’ Wozniacki said. ‘Obviously, everyone wants to play in Centre Court. It’s up to the tournament to decide where we’re going to play. I just go out there and I try to win. I’m a competitor, so it really doesn’t matter. The court is the same and the size is the same. You know, I just go out there and play.’
Wozniacki is also smiling through constant questioning about whether she deserves to be the No. 1-ranked player in the world even though she has not won a major title yet. Her stock response is to suggest that the rankings computer can’t be all wrong.
Maria Sharapova, who won the first of her three major titles at Wimbledon in 2004, also won her second-round match Friday but it was a noisier affair in all respects. She beat British hope, 17-year-old Laura Robson, 7-6 (4), 6-3 after trailing 3-0 early. And Sharapova, 24, is a grunter. One of the British tabloid papers used something it called a ‘gruntometer’ on Court 1 to somehow measure the sounds coming from Sharapova.
Robson was asked after the match, ‘What do you feel about Sharapova’s grunting? We had a gruntometer in the court.’ Robson, seeming puzzled, responded, ‘Is that a thing?’ The questioner responded, ‘It is if you work for the Sun. She was the loudest she’s ever been. Does it put you off your game? Do you find it distracting?’
Whatever money invested in the gruntometer could have been saved, at least according to Robson.
‘Absolutely not,’ was her answer. ‘You know, you hear it sort of for the first game or two but then after that you’re just really focused on the point. I didn’t even notice, to be honest.’
If Robson hasn’t noticed, another London newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, said other Wimbledon officials do notice. It quoted Ian Ritchie, chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, which runs the tournament, as saying something needs to be done.
‘I think there is an education problem with the younger players,’ Ritchie said in the story. ‘If you say, ‘What do you get the most letters about?’ I would say that grunting is high up.’
Sharapova shrugged off questions about her grunting and whether it’s a distraction or not. ‘I think that’s your job, not mine, to judge,’ she said. Robson seemed to have already made the decision. Everyone should just shut up about it.
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-- Diane Pucin in Wimbledon, England