Why does every other sport Ican think of has constant chants but tennis requires absolute silence during a point?
In: Other
Many sports expect silence during critical points of the game. Golf is another one that comes to mind.
With games played in large stadiums the crowd is far enough away to not be as distracting to players. With tennis or golf the crowd is right there, and could easily become a distraction.
It’s a tradition thing really.
There are other sports where silence is expected – golf, darts, snooker.
With golf and tennis you can argue it started because they were seen as upper class games where manners and restraint were expected. But then darts has always been working class.
I don’t think there is any great logic to it.
Golf, billiards, not darts , bowling… some more quiet than others, but still no chants that I can think of.
I can think of two main reasons.
1. Tennis belongs culturally to something I would call “gentleman’s sports”. Other sports in this category are snooker and golf, where the crowds are also expected to be silent. Notice how the same behaviour is expected of players – they are to focus on their own game and any kind of outburst towards referees is penalized.
2. Particularly for tennis, sound cues from the other player hitting the ball are an aspect of gameplay. The sound helps identify what kind of shot the opponent is performing, allowing the player to react before seeing the actual ball trajectory.
Because tennis balls have serious concentration issues, they perform best in silent environments.
In tennis you need to be able to hear the umpires saying whether the ball is out or not. If the crowd start shouting then a player could intentionally leave a shot thinking it’s out which would have otherwise been in.
Latest Answers