Grunt Work
Outside the Lines, Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN
(Featuring a panel discussion from Wimbledon with Patrick McEnroe, Brad Gilbert, Pam Shriver and Chris Evert)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyHGI_TkUbA
The world’s two top women’s players, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, have become well known for something completely different than their tennis: they are among the loudest grunters in the sport, each letting out high-pitched shrieks on nearly every stroke. Hall-of-Famer Martina Navratilova says fans complain to her constantly about the noise and now, for the first time, the Women’s Tennis Association says it’s going to take action. Sunday, Outside the Lines interviews Navratilova, who first complained about the issue at Wimbledon 20 years ago, and reports on how the new policy will affect current and future players. Kelly Naqi reports.
“It’s hurting the game. It’s not just the players that are affected, it’s the fans. We’re losing fans. I cannot tell you how many times people come up to me and say, ‘Can you do something about the grunting? It’s driving me crazy.’” — Martina Navratilova, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles
“If you made an ultimatum to (current pro players to) stop it now, not a squeak, I believe that would hurt them, because it takes time to break a habit.” — Nick Bollettieri, founder of IMG Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Fla. and former coach of Monica Seles, Venus & Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova
“We aim, hopefully, to ultimately have a noise meter that would be just for the chair umpire, and if the noise level got too high, it would set that off. So we want to use science as a way to help us define what that noise level should be, and then they will have an objective rule that we can implement.” — Stacey Allaster, CEO, Women’s Tennis Association
McEnroe, Gilbert, Shriver and Evert will discuss “grunting”
in tennis during Sunday’s OTL
Women’s Tennis Battles Grunt Work
ESPN.com (Willie Weinbaum’s Outside the Lines companion piece)
How can a sport that has permitted such sounds now squelch them?
E:60 Returns to ESPN Deportes
E:60 (Tuesday, July 3, 9 p.m., ESPN Deportes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=figeJa7bWwo
 |
E:60 and ESPN The Magazine were among those honored by The National Association of Black Journalists on June 23 when the NABJ announced its 2012 Salute to Excellence Awards at its Convention and Career Fair in New Orleans |
Kareem Rosser is awarded the Interscholastic Polo Player of the Year award.
From left: Danny Scheraga, executive director of the Polo Training Foundation;
Kareem Rosser; Lezlie Hiner.
E:60 won in the Television-Sports category for the Heather Lombardo-produced and Lisa Salters-reported “Philly Stakes” piece on Philadelphia’s Work-To-Ride polo team, a group of underprivileged inner-city youngsters who made history by becoming the first all African-American team to win the polo national Championship. This is E:60’s third award in the past four years.
Magazine — Game of Her Life
ESPN The Magazine won in the Magazine-Sports category (over one million circulation) for Tim Crothers piece “The Game of Her Life” which tells the story of Phiona Mutesi, a 14-year-old chess prodigy from Uganda. It ran in the Jan 11, 2011 (NEXT) issue. This is the third NABJ Excellence award The Magazine has won since 2010.
The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap
 |
 |
ESPN Radio’s The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap received New York Festivals Gold Medal Award for Best Regularly Scheduled Sports Program on June 18. The NYF International Radio Program & Promotions Awards honors the World’s Best Radio Programs™. Schaap, host of The Sporting Life (Fridays, 10 p.m.), which is now available as a podcast at ESPNRadio.com and iTunes, is a New York-based national correspondent, a New York Times best-selling author and contributor to ABC World News Tonight” and Nightline.