Navratilova to Sharapova: Shut it up!

Put a cork in it: Martina Navratilova, who recently regained Czech citizenship 30 years after defecting to the US, would like to silence the grunters for good, even calling out the girl she helped discover - Maria "Shriek"apova.

Speaking to the press in Tokyo where she's participating in an exhibition with Steffi Graf and Kimiko Date, the 18-time Grand Slam champion said,

"If I were the commissioner of tennis I would outlaw (screeching during matches.) Maria's level gets louder the closer the match and quite frankly it's not necessary, they aren't lifting 300 pounds, they're hitting a tennis ball."

The 51-year old even referenced the recent story of 9-year Lauryn Edwards, who was banned from her local tennis club for excessive shrieking, to make her case saying,

"Here you had this little kid who was just barely getting the ball over the net yet the noise coming out of her made you think she was hitting the ball 200 miles an hour. She was concentrating more on making the noise than hitting the ball."

I'm all for Martina being the first tennis commissioner - and we all know the game needs one.

*VIA DOWNTHELINETENNIS.COM

(image via AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)