Judge for yourself: listen to De Brito's grunting here

The tennis politicians have much to ponder with the second week of the French Open upon us and Wimbledon hard on its heels. When they are lured from the presidential tribune, take off their classy sunhats and get down to business, top of the agenda is noise, and with his sensitive comments about doping and its consequences, Rafael Nadal has moved that topic even more prominently to the fore.

Of the many wonderful things that occured in the first week at Roland Garros, it is something not quite so wonderful that troubled the Net Post more than anything and it has to be resolved before tennis is irretrievably torn. Something must be done about Michelle Larcher De Brito, the Portuguese girl who has raised the debate about on-court noise to unacceptable levels. Soon or later an umpire (or more than one) deciding to make a name for him/herself will call the 16-year-old for breaking the 'hindrance' rule - which many right-minded thinkers believes she has done already - or a succession of players will refuse to continue playing against her, with the requisite turmoil that would cause.

Lest there is a sense that we are over-reacting, the hubbub after Larcher De Brito had lost to Aravane Rezai of France in the third round of the women's singles - a match in which Rezai complained at her screeching - was among the more impassioned witnessed in recent times. It was corridor conversation everywhere and the Net Post was one of five writers granted access to Stefan Fransson, the tournament referee, to debate its consequences.

Fransson is a solid, friendly sort, soft spoken and engaging. He runs an immaculate ship, administration is his forte and without that, the great tournaments of the world cannot function properly. But in the case of Larcher De Brito, though he explained the mechanics of the debate succinctly, there was a troubling lack of appreciation for quite how loud the kid is. He said he did not believe the noise she gave out could be considered a hindrance. The Net Post is not the only one here to think he is absolutely wrong.

It is an appalling din, worse than the worst levels Maria Sharapova reached and that is saying something. It could be heard through double-glazed commentary box glass. It could be heard in television studios across the concourse. It could be heard on televisions and computers across the world. Allan 'Rolling' Stone, the Australian Davis Cup player turned commentator, said that studios back home in Melbourne were besieged with irate callers saying they were turning their televisions off. This is profoundly disturbing.

The Net Post sat watching the match in the company of Virginia Wade and Annabel Croft. They have enough experience and hours spent on court to know what is off-putting and what is not. They both agreed that Larcher De Brito overstepped the mark. Conversation turned to how it would be if Larcher De Brito was given a Centre Court date at Wimbledon, it rained, the roof was closed and she screamed on. You would never hear the sound of ball upon strings.

The greatest worry is that tennis has great difficulty in enforcing the rules that it has laid down. It is starchly effective off-court (a point Nadal continues to raise with regard the prohibitive Wada doping code and its open-all-hours procedures) but has developed a terrible tendency to sit on its hands when something occurs in front of its eyes that needs remedying.

Fransson said that he would be seeking a meeting with Larcher De Brito and her support people before Wimbledon and that the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour had already raised the issue with her - which obviously went in one ear and out of the other. The kid herself says she has made this kind of noise all her life, though that version of events is not supported totally by those in Sacramento who recall a 14-year-old playing Team Tennis in that city and though she grunted a bit, it was never regarded as more than the acceptable norm.

Nadal: there must be better way to beat drugs cheats

Rafael Nadal spent two days at home in Mallorca between his loss to Roger Federer in the Madrid final and his flight to France for Roland Garros, where defeat to Robin Soderling of Sweden yesterday was such a shock to the system. Nadal was swimming with friends on the first evening when his mother called to tell him that the Wada doping testers had called around and he was wanted. It shook him to the core. They were waiting at 8 o'clock one morning in Paris, when he was practising at 11 the same day. This is getting completely out of hand.

Nadal could have chosen to keep his thoughts to himself here, but feels so deeply about the intrusive nature of the 'whereabouts' rule, that he chose to debate it openly. "People write all sorts of things - things were written in the papers here in France," he said. "I wouldn't say stupid things, but I would like this sport to be as clean as possible. Of course there are those who cheat, and they should be punished.