Roberto Forzoni replies: players should focus on their own game play and other controllable factors (such as effort, attitude and responses), rather than uncontrollable factors such as their opponent’s behaviour.
I suspect that players who are easily distracted by the grunter may well find something else to be distracted by in the absence of noise.
So beware. if you start focusing on things beyond your direct control, you are setting yourself up for a hard time. by focusing on the fact that your opponent is grunting, you are losing track of your primary objective, which is to hit the ball well and win points. my advice when playing against a grunter is to stay focused on what’s important; listening to your opponent is not one of those things.