FULL VERSION 1992 - Graf vs Seles - Wimbledon

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Copyrights - All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Limited

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AELTC is registered in England and Wales under company number 07546773 with its registered office at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Church Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 5AE.

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Commentary Copyrights - © NBCUniversal Media, LLC a subsidiary of Comcast (US)

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Thank you for your gracious use of this classic match!

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PertSnergleman's Review:
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"No discussion of Monica Seles’s unique attributes and playing style could be complete without mention of her infamous grunt.

Contemporary tennis players all have variants of a basic exhaling mechanism when they hit the ball. Commentators and sports doctors debate over the value of grunting, weighing the benefits in timing it confers versus the wasted physical exertion in doing so.

For many players though, grunting is not even a question of choice, yet followers of tennis agree that it was Seles’ grunt that set the yardstick by which all others would or should be measured against... Seles was an equal opportunity grunter- her cries rang across the court regardless of whether she was hitting a thundering overhead, or a feathery drop shot.

During Monica’s run to the Wimbledon final in 1992, tabloids continually jeered her grunt. They started with the witty, dubbing her “Moan-ica”, and then went to the outright mean, demanding on tabloid covers that she “Stop That Grunt!”.

Public teasing turned into professional controversy when numerous opponents complained that Seles’ grunts were actively distracting and conferred an unfair advantage. Martina Navratilova, a respected player and an elder stateswoman of the game, went on the record saying that the screaming was so bad that she could not hear the ball come off of Seles’s racquet, slowing her own reaction time.

Whether opponents’ complaints about Seles’ excessive grunting were products of passive frustration at being unable to beat her on the court, a reaction against a perceived unfeminine approach she took to the game, or a valid complaint against self-serving gamesmanship, Seles’s grunting became part of her legacy as much as her "breathtakingly natural talent."

Enjoy!