Azarenka: 'Grunting is natural'

Victoria Azarenka has dismissed calls that her grunting during matches is off-putting, claiming it is "natural" to her.

The Belarusian came in for criticism during her victorious Australian Open campaign for her high-pitched on-court grunting.

The WTA are now said to be investigating ways of reducing the noise made by players.

However, Azarenka has now said that the issue has been blown out of proportion.

When quizzed on the subject following her win in the Qatar Open, Azarenka said: "It will be with me for my entire career. But let me put it this way: do you snore? Can you control that? There are ways, but you still snore, right?

"So it's natural to you, right? So that's natural to me, too. The way I play tennis. That's it.

"I cannot speak for any other players. Not one player ever came up to me and said 'hey, stop doing that.' If somebody wants to blame: 'Oh, I lost this match because she's grunting or whatever', it's up to them. I think they're just weak people."

Azarenka beat Australia's Samantha Stosur to win her third title of the year at the Qatar Open in Doha.