A lot of tennis players, from professional to recreational, grunt when they hit the ball while playing tennis. Is there a reason for this?
related:
http://regressing.deadspin.com/why-do-tennis-players-grunt-because-it-works-1597557402
At the beginning it was probably a reaction generated by the effort to hit the ball. It is a natural reaction under stress in phase of respiration.
Now is almost becoming a "trademark " made in a more emphasize, maybe also to distract the opponent
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I had down-voted this question so as to not mislead future readers, but I removed it since the first two sentences are spot-on. Indeed, imagine one were to lift something really heavy, maybe unsuccessfully: a grunt would be very likely. The final sentence, however, is almost complete nonsense =P -- yes, there is the occasional person who does this, but the overwhelming majority of the time it's that people are working hard and exerting considerable physical effort. [continued...] – Sam T Dec 2 '17 at 23:47
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One thing overlooked in tennis is how much effort goes into hitting the ball. People often talk about the distance run, but actually hitting the ball is serious effort, for both the legs and the arms/upper body. One has to compress down, then really explode up with the legs. Unless it's a very running-based match, this is the most tiring bit, not the running side-to-side/up-and-down. [Ok, apparently I can't change my vote unless the answer is edited. I think a down-vote is fair by itself, but not necessary given the above comments...] – Sam T Dec 2 '17 at 23:47
