THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN: What a racket. Screeching is murdering the game

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This was published 6 years ago

THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN: What a racket. Screeching is murdering the game

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I'm a big fan of Ash Barty. She's fantastic. However, I switched off her first round match in the Open because I couldn't cope with the aggressive screeching of her opponent Aryna Sabalenka even with the sound low. It's not the first women's match I've switched off. It really is a problem that the WTA should have nipped in the bud many years ago because it's getting worse and spreading. The men grunt as they're making an effort. It's generally not intrusive. The women who screech sound as though they're about to kill someone.

Pauline Barron, Ripponlea

Matt Golding

Matt Golding

Why is the scream allowed? It's too much

I just don't get it. By a dictionary definition, screaming is not grunting ('Grunting rears its head again', The Age, 18/1). Screaming is screaming, and doing it in your opponent's face is seen as gamesmanship, and therefore disallowed, in every sport other than tennis. No one likes it. It does the game no good, and if television audiences turn the volume down, as I did, then sponsors will surely assess their sponsorship options.

Roger Thorrowgood, Inverloch

Don't think much of the question

For the benefit of TV audiences watching the tennis coverage Channel 7 has employed young women to interview overseas tennis players. One of the first questions asked is "Do you love Melbourne?"/"What do you think of Melbourne?" Fifty years ago any overseas visitor of importance was asked the same question/s by our media. Are we so lacking in self-esteem that we really have to grovel like this? It demeans the person asking the question and embarrasses the person being interviewed.

Venise Alstergren, Toorak

Decorum lost in the battle

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Let's have some decorum on the tennis court. Throwing themselves on the ground when winning. Punching the air when hitting a winner. Chucking their sweaty towels at the ball boys/girls. Take a lesson from Roger Federer and be gracious.

Myra Fisher, Brighton East

It's his choice to count his money

Tennis today is a career choice and money is the greatest incentive. So I say move on from Bernard Tomic's honest remarks, forget the outrage and leave him to forge his own future. There are far more important issues to report on and discuss.

Iris Owen, East Geelong

Serving it to the raucous rabble

Like Ian Anderson (Letters, 16/1) I entirely agree that it's time some action was taken to allow the tennis to be enjoyed by other spectators besides the embarrassing pushy, raucous rabble. It might also show a fair go and basic consideration to all competitors by reverting to normal cheering and applause. The game definitely loses its appeal on TV mute without the sound and atmosphere.

Judith Horton, Heidelberg West

FORUM

A bad choice

Australia Day recalls the commencement of offshore detention in this country by the British government. Offshore detention in any form is a barbaric practice and why the country has decided this day should be celebrated has always been a mystery to me. Australia has a lot to celebrate, but the current day is a bad choice.

Dean Wotherspoon, Northcote

Waiting for a republic

The time to change the date of our national day will be the day we become a republic, when we finally become a truly independent nation. It will be a day that all Australians can celebrate.

Ian Braybrook, Castlemaine

Reading lesson

Has Cory Bernardi read the lyrics to Solid Rock? It's about boat people who came here 200 years ago and wrecked the inhabitants' Australia Day forever.

David Johnston, Healesville

Just do it

The groundswell for change of the date of Australia Day is ever increasing. So let's get on with it and do it, instead of dragging it on and on as happened with the same-sex marriage debate and which will happen with the republic debate.

Paul Yeung, Blairgowrie

A female PM

It was interesting to read Judith Ireland's article ruminating about the next potential female PM for Australia ("Who will be our next female PM?", 14/1) not so much from the candidacy point of view but the fact that in 2018 we are still talking about this possibility, rather than just accepting that this would be natural.

With women the equal of their male counterparts (except in remuneration) in all employment fields, why is it that male hegemony still rules in this place? Why is it that our present federal parliamentary cabinet is still so male? Clearly competence and leadership are not the criteria. Perhaps one day (hopefully soon) puerility will give way to plurality and we can really advance Australia fair.

Graeme Foley, Werribee

Name, shame, blame

It is sad, but not entirely surprising, that some people, including women, are defending sexual predators. They mistakenly confuse workplace flirtations, which are mutually consensual, with abusive behaviours that denigrate, humiliate and harm others, physically, mentally and emotionally.

The defence that "I was only having a little fun" rings very hollow when one listens carefully to what victims say about many of their workplace (and other) experiences. Sexual predators are not interested in a collaborative and equal relationship in which both parties mutually benefit. They seek to control, dominate and bully others, using their position, status and power. Blaming victims is what sexual predators seek, hoping to be exonerated for their cruel, inhumane, unethical and, in some cases, illegal behaviours. There never were, and never will be, excuses for sexual predators.

The only way forward is to name, shame and blame the perpetrators, and to make them responsible for their actions.

Irene Goldwasser, St Kilda

Diplomacy, not war

Australia needs to urgently re-examine our "joined at the hip" approach to US militarism. We do not need another war. It has been estimated around a million Iraqis died after the 2003 invasion, and more than twice that in Vietnam. Diplomacy needs to be our advice to the US, and then more diplomacy. Too often political expediency and military might have led to terrible suffering for both civilians and soldiers on all sides. War must be absolutely the last resort, and Malcolm Turnbull needs to send that message to Washington.

Dr Margaret Beavis, Medical Association for Prevention of War, Australia

Bred to win

No wonder Kyle Edmund gave a "rye smile" (The Age, 19/1) after defeating Nikoloz Basilahvili in the third round of the Australian Open – he'd had him on toast for breakfast.

Kirsten Fox, Dublin, Ireland

Surrealistic apple

Is anyone still talking about the proposed erosion of public space in Fed Square? If only the Apple building could be less of a modernist knock-off of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto and more of the school of Rene Magritte, the surrealist. He knew where to place an apple.

Janine James, Templestowe

Forestry jobs

Has Sigmund Jorgensen ("Railing against the axe and the bulldozer", The Sunday Age, 14/1) given thought to the source of any timber furniture, wall and window frames, staircases or fencing in and around his house?

While his musings on the economics of forest tourism paint a utopian picture, they hold no basis in fact. The timber industry is proven as one of the best employment multipliers – after harvest (and regeneration as required under legislation), the sub-sectors of timber processing, transport and servicing/supply contracts are estimated to double the employment initially created. The same cannot be said for the few casual tourism jobs said to be forecast from more national parks.

Let's stick to the facts: since 1984, national parks and other conservation reserves in Victoria have increased from 1.3 million hectares to more than four million hectares today.

Tim Johnston, CEO, Victorian Association of Forest Industries

Forestry threats

Bushfires are the greatest threat to native forests and demonstrably have a devastating effect on the environment and human wellbeing and welfare. Old-growth trees, whether they are in state forests or national parks, are only part of the landscape. Trees die, seeds germinate, saplings survive and mature, and finally age and die.

National park status does not halt the cycle, nor gives these forests immunity from fire. Conservation of forests, regardless of land tenure, requires active sustainable management. This encompasses environmental, social, cultural and economic uses and users (including among others; the timber and honey industries), and already incorporates the custodianship of fauna, flora, soils and water.

Lois Dexter, Mulgrave

Forestry assets

Sigmund Jorgensen urges the Andrews government to end logging of our forests, to protect them, and to create a Great Forest National Park. He lists the ensuing advantages to the environment, and the economy especially via tourism, which, coupled with training, would create jobs for the displaced loggers and other unemployed.

Cherishing forests for their role in absorbing and storing carbon emissions is an essential part of climate action and in Victoria it would combine well with other climate-related measures.

Barbara Fraser, Burwood

Shocking rip-off

In the early days of privatisation, I was an electricity buyer for a large company. There were only five or six retailers and prices did not include terms and conditions that were not easily understood, discounts, special deals that were confusing, or misleading terms. We were offered a price per unit that varied depending on the time of day we used the electricity. A simple spreadsheet allowed me to pick a supplier.

Now there are dozens of retailers and it is extremely difficult to understand the offers. We all know the real price of all other essentials; electricity should be advertised as the price per unit not a percentage of some unknown price with an inflated discount offered. Too many electricity users are being ripped off because they do not understand the marketing system.

Eric Dettman, Rye

Why the roof?

Are the Australian Open officials waiting for someone to collapse and die before they close the lids on the main arenas and turn on the airconditioning? Why the roof covers if they are not to be used in this heat emergency? It's outrageous to expect these athletes to try to play in this madness.

Anne Walker, Carlton

Bill, you're not the voice

I respect Bill Shorten as leader but don't warm to him. It's his vocal delivery. In a recent TV interview he spoke with quiet authority. But as soon as he hits the hustings or addresses an audience, his voice becomes tight and harsh and his manner hectoring with a plaintive note. Bill, get yourself a voice coach.

Anne Riddell, Mount Martha

Damn weather

The trouble with the weather is that everybody complains, but nobody does anything.

Les Aisen, Elsternwick

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