When 21-year-old Australian Ashleigh Barty stepped into Rod Laver arena for her first round Australian Open clash against 19-year-old Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, she knew what to expect.
She knew her opponent, ranked world number 66, had a history of screaming, or grunting, after every shot she hit. And she knew it would be distracting.
But as prepared as she was, Barty admitted after the match – which she won 6-7 6-4 6-4 – that her opponent’s sounds were louder than she expected.
“I knew it was coming but it was a bit louder than I thought,” she told reporters after the clash.
“But I knew I had to let that go and just concentrate on myself.

"A lot of players grunt. A lot of players don't grunt. It's just the way they are, the way they play. For me, it wasn't a distraction. It wasn't anything like that. It was just part and parcel."
But even if the world number 17 wasn't phased by her opponents sounds, the crowd certainly was: the central umpire was forced to plead with the crowd after they started imitating the squeals late in the second set.

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This debate has been going for well over a decade without resolution, but I'm not sure where the solution lies - I still recall the match (and I wish I could recall their names) since it was funny and hideous at the same time
Player 1 was "aaaiie eeeee"
Player 2 was "whooop daaah"
Their rallies were comical