Maria Sharapova's secret is out. Her shrieks during tennis matches serve no purpose.
SI.com reported Tuesday about Sharapova's interview on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, in which the host asks Sharapova about her grunting.
"I'm not sure what it does," Sharapova said when DeGeneres asked her whether the grunting helps her breathing and exertion. "I still to this day don't really know."
That statement alone should hasten the WTA's noise-level testing as it relates to grunting. In October, USA TODAY Sports reported that the WTA said it had begun testing but did not indicate how the data would be collected, measured or presented.
In short, the WTA was collecting research but didn't know what to do with it or how to create any kind of grunting policy because of it.
DeGeneres asked Sharapova whether she's tried not to grunt and how that would affect her game.
"I've never actually tried, no," Sharapova said, "because once you start playing, you go into this automatic rhythm."
"So you don't even know you're doing it," DeGeneres said.
"No," Sharapova responded.
Shrieking in women's tennis has been a topic since Monica Seles was a top player in the early 1990s. It has also affected the men's game. In March, SI.com reported of a match in which Andy Murray criticized opponent Carlos Berlocq for his grunting only on certain points to distract Murray after Berlocq complained that Murray was taking too much time between points.
Berlocq said he's been grunting his entire tennis career and isn't about to change at this stage of his career.
WTA officials unveiled a three-part plan to curb grunting through technology, rules changes and education which it publicized at Wimbledon ... in 2012. Still, WTA chief executive Stacey Allaster told USA TODAY Sports that the governing body still was committed to that game plan.
"We are committed to the strategy to drive excessive grunting out of the game," Allaster said, "and we believe it's through the next generation."
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