Everyone's coughing at French Open: Is it a flu, or an act?

Female tennis players are often criticized for being too loud. The grunting, shrieking, moaning as some players hit the ball, it's just too much for fans.

Noise complaints are amounting again at Roland Garros – but this time, the noise is of a different variety: Everyone is coughing. It seems some kind of flu is taking over in Paris.

When defending champion Maria Sharapova coughed throughout her first-round win, then skipped the usual on-court interview, fans in the stadium booed her. She later said she'd been battling a cold for more than a week. Fans weren't convinced.

Let's be honest. It's a complete waste of energy to go around faking a coughing fit. Or 20 coughing fits. There's no point. By the fourth round, Sharapova was out. She refused to blame the loss on being sick, but she'd barely been able to catch her breath between points, instead coughing with the strength of a lifelong smoker.

Whatever ailed Sharapova seemed to have spread to Serena Williams by Saturday.

Alize Cornet caught it next. “I have had problems with my throat for about two days. It is quite disturbing when I’m out of breath, when I have been running, rallying. It can be a problem," she said in a press conference following her fourth-round loss.

It struck Gael Monfils, too.

Williams looked even worse by Thursday's semifinal, flushed and struggling in the first set. Like Cornet, she doubled over her racket between points. She coughed – or, quite possibly, threw up – into a towel during one of her changeovers.

"I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick," Williams said after the come-from-behind win. "I didn’t expect to win that, and I can’t believe I won... I got the flu after my third-round match and I haven’t been getting better. Hopefully this is the worst and I’ll get better."

As they did with Sharapova, people on Twitter lambasted Williams.

Legitimate fans hate to see a player sick – but even they think the players could work through it with a little less noise.