The 10 Sexiest Tennis Grunts

Something has been (literally) causing a racket at this year's Wimbledon Championships, and it hasn't been the matches. Rather, as fans and talking heads such as Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club have complained, it's those patterned, guttural noises emitted by the players at loud decibels every time they smash balls (no pun intended). In simpler terms, it's all that damn grunting.

Sure, watching the matches with one's eyes closed makes it easy to mistake the siren song for porno movie audio and/or physical torture. But, as tennis pro Victoria Azarenka has suggested, their battle cries are actually breathing techniques that fuel the matches. Ultimately, whether the sounds distract from the matches or enhance them is dependent on how tight your jock is; take our list of the 10 Sexiest Tennis Grunts as evidence to which side we fall on. And, no, we're not sadists.

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Ivanovic has an iconic grunt that's completely her own. It isn't like other players' shrieks; it's almost soothing in a way, a two syllable, "Ah-ha!" If she wasn't attacking balls all the time, we might even call it... cute?

Dokic takes it down a little when it comes to grunting. Hers is more of an air release, a "Shh", and it drives her opponents crazy. Their claim: It's very distracting. Yeah, we agree. We really hope no one asks us who else is playing—we can only focus on Dokic. Shh, shh, no words.

Wozniacki's grunt is more of a quiet "unf." That is, until a challenger rises to the occasion. While playing Victoria Azarenka, Wozniacki met her eccentric grunts with her own quiet response, until Azarenka let out a painful yet attention-grabbing scream. Not to be outdone, Wozniacki then met Azarenka's yell with her a scene-stealing and hearing-aid-busting banshee impression.

It's no wonder that Kirilenko is a crowd favorite wherever she goes. Unfortunately, when we're watching one of her matches, we have to turn the volume down so our neighbors won't think we're into sadomasochism.

Grunting has always been a part of the sport, but it became a problem in 1992 after Seles repeatedly emitted a sound akin to your aunt's smoker's cough. Opponents complained that her yells were distracting and that they couldn't hear the ball. As a result, she was given the nickname "Moan-ica," a moniker we can totally support.

Surprisingly, it's not so much Azarenka's sound that makes her opponents complain, but the length of it. What sounds like a kid's first roller coaster experience exceeds 1.5 seconds whenever she hits the ball. We never want to say a lady is faking it, but the duration of her "Woo" grunts makes us wonder.

De Brito said about her grunting, which got her booed off the court at the 2009 French Open, that no one can tell her to stop and that she won't do something that will change her game in any way. Recently, though, the defiant pro did say, "I'm still learning. Maybe I can eventually put it under control. I don’t know, but I’ll try." We can't be the only ones who disagree with this, right? Grunt, moan, do whatever you have to in order to win and make the sport that much sexier—it's all good.

We don't understand how people can play against Dementieva. Once she starts grunting, wouldn't you just drop your racket and start fantasizing? Her grunts were even featured in Lil Wayne's "Sportscenter", which is way less creepy to put on your iPod than four minutes of Dementieva's grunts on loop.

Facing one of these ladies alone is terrifying, but facing them together, during a doubles match, is enough to send the fiercest players running. Who's man enough to handle these two sisters? Their grunts, together, sound like too lionesses communicating how to make a kill. Which, of course, is incredibly hot.

If Sharapova is as outspoken in the bedroom as she is on the court, her fiance, Sasha Vujacic, has probably invested in some earplugs already. The guttural battle cry, which sounds like a cross between a cat in heat and a chainsaw, has been recorded at 103.2 decibels. To put that in perspective, her previous record of 102.7 is the equivalent of an ambulance siren.