Tennis: Azarenka defends on-court grunting

DOHA: World number one Victoria Azarenka hit back at continuing criticism of her on-court grunting, claiming it was as natural and uncontrollable as snoring. The Belarusian insisted she had no time for critics of her noise levels after defeating Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-2 in the Qatar Open final. “Not one player has ever come up to me and said ‘hey, stop grunting’,” said Azarenka. “I think there are other ways in which people distract me too. But I don’t say it out aloud — I just deal with it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2012.