Azarenka's grunting amuses Wimbledon fans

Wimbledon's Centre Court crowd is famed for its lowest common denominator sense of humour but they were fully justified in giggling their way through Victoria Azarenka's third-round win over Daniela Hantuchova on Friday.

The 21-year-old Belarusian fourth seed arrived with a reputation as one of the worst "grunters" on the circuit and she enhanced it with another infuriatingly deafening display in beating Hantuchova 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

As soon as Azarenka began to release her trademark squeal in the opening game, the chuckles began rippling round the half-full arena.

When the sight of a pigeon landing on the grass or a stray ball striking a line judge is usually enough to send Wimbledon fans into paroxysms of laughter, Azarenka's aural assault was all too much for them.

The more she screeched, the more they laughed, with the now-obligatory copycat impression being thrown in from the cheap seats adding to the merriment.

Measured at 95 decibels in her opening game on Monday Azarenka still has a way to go to match the record 105 decibel shrieks by Russian Maria Sharapova two years ago.

However, there is nobody to touch her when it comes to longevity as her drawn-out emissions are still ringing in the air as her opponent plays her next shot.

The sound is less of a grunt than a "whooooo" and when Hantuchova began weighing in with her own, somewhat quieter, "aye" outbursts, the whole thing became ridiculous in its most literal sense.

The "aye-whooo-aye-whooo-aye-whooo" exchanges sounded as if a helicopter with engine trouble was making a forced landing on Henman Hill and the tennis, error-strewn and lacking in any real tension, took a back seat as the fans could not get past the numbing noise.

Azarenka said ahead of Wimbledon that the noise was "a natural part of her breathing system", that it had helped her develop more power on the ball when she was younger and that she had no intention of changing it.

Wimbledon chief executive Ian Ritchie said this week he had every sympathy with the fans, who bombard him with letters of complaint about the issue, but was powerless to do anything about it.

"We have discussed it with the tours and we believe it is helpful to reduce the amount of grunting," he said.

"We are one tournament in a global circuit but we have made our views clear and we would like to see less of it."

Photographs: Getty Images