TENNIS has always been the constant force in my life. It’s made me what I am today but as I look at the sport evolving, I see too many issues that are potentially harmful to the future of the game. Top of the list is grunting, screeching, shrieking, whatever you want to call it. I call it cheating and it’s got to stop.

At the International Tennis Federation’s World Champions’ Dinner last week I was presented with the Philippe Chatrier Award for my contribution to the sport. I knew I had to make an acceptance speech and wanted to voice my concerns.

I had a 10-point plan that focused on rules, playing conditions, technology and the way we let other sports get better marketing deals than us, but most of all I want to stop this awful, deafening and unfair trend that is now common among young women players.

I started having issues with it when I was playing Monica Seles back in the early 1990s. She was one of the first, and I didn’t like it one bit. It affected my game because to me it is important to hear the ball hit the racket; you can hear a bad shot before you can see it and the sound is an imperative part of the game.

I believe it may initially have been employed to put other people off. Chrissie Evert and I never used to make noises. Roger Federer doesn’t nowadays. It doesn’t make anyone a better player and it could be counterproductive because making that kind of noise maybe a thousand times in a match requires a lot of energy.

Rules must be changed, players must be warned. If they don’t stop, they must have points deducted. I can see people turning off their TV sets because the noise players make is abhorrent.

It’s the same thing with time violations. Umpires must crack down on players such as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who bounce the ball so many times before serving. A time clock should be placed on every court to ensure the allowed period between points is not exceeded. Hardly anyone takes notice these days when the umpire calls time.

Bring back smaller rackets because the skill element is disappearing from the game, quicken playing surfaces, get a standard ball, abolish lets on serve and stop the rule-makers cutting down on the size of logos on shirts and rackets because golf is leaving us far behind in the monetary situation.

But, more than anything else, quieten things down. The grunting has to stop.

- Martina Navratilova is an ambassador for HSBC, the official bank of the Wimbledon Championships