Of the myriad sounds that invade the conscience of the modern-day tennis watcher, the grunts, the groans, the hoots and the howls, perhaps none are more taxing on the brain than those emitted by Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.
Do not expect the final of the Sony Ericsson Open today to be of the village fête variety.
There is a tendency for babies in the bleachers to ape the noise they make — no really, it happened this week, an infant echoing the sound it picked out during the high-pitched finale to Sharapova’s semi-final victory over Andrea Petkovic, of Germany.
While such episodes amuse the neutral, one is perturbed by the unwanted cacophonous backdrop to so many matches these days. Is it necessary? Do we need this long march up the vocal scale as rallies become more tense and the shots required to complete them gather importance?
As usual, the game’s leaders have closed their ears to the racket — and it is now impossible to put this genie back into the bottle.
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In the matter of the importance of the match, as the finale to part one of the 2011 hard-court season, a significant moment has been reached in the stage of both careers.
To have defeated Kim Clijsters and Vera Zvonareva, the No 2 and No 3-seeded players, in straight sets on consecutive days indicates that Azarenka is playing as resolutely as ever. She would match her career-high ranking of No 6 should she defeat Sharapova, the former world No 1, and what she has done here is to begin to lose the shackles of self-doubt and concerns about what was being written back home in Belarus by people who make huge assumptions about a tour they know nothing about. She now strides the court like the confident, poised 21-year-old she is. And her commitment has been redoubled.
“I’m just in a good mood always now,” Azarenka said after her 6-0, 6-3 drubbing of Zvonareva, the Wimbledon and US Open runner-up last year. “I feel like I’m happy all the time, it doesn’t matter whether I’m on or off the court.This is a special place [she won the tournament two years ago] and when you enjoy what you’re doing it makes it so much easier.”
The contentment that leads to expression on court can come in many forms, For Azarenka, it is personal happiness in that she dates Sergei Bubka, the young Ukraine professional, that she has in Sam Sumyk, her coach, and Jean-Pierre Bruyere, the physio who used to be part of Andy Murray’s set-up, a team who keep her focused, light and fit. They are a fine team.
There is much to be said for Sharapova’s frame of mind at present, too, one uncluttered by doubts about whether her shoulder can cope with the demands she places upon it. It was not that long ago that the Russian still played with a sense of impending doom, but that seems to have been banished. How she must have shared the concerns when Clijsters said that she was being bothered by her serving shoulder. Petkovic suffered from a “blocked rib” during her defeat by Sharapova, which she described as “distracting and disturbing”.
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While Sharapova and Azarenka are contending for the title that used to be the domain of the Williams sisters — this was the first time in five years that neither Venus nor Serena was fit enough to compete — the rest of the tour is getting itself prepared for clay in the knowledge that the body will endure a little less of the pounding it takes from three months on cement.
Laura Robson, the 17-year-old ranked No 238 on the WTA Tour, has also had injury concerns. She returned to the courts last week after two months out with a hamstring problem, but in a lower-scale tournament in China yesterday, the British No 6 had to retire with a stomach muscle problem that is not expected to keep her out of competition too long.