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Margaret Jean CourtAustralian tennis player
Date of Birth: 16.07.1942
Country:  Australia |
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Biography of Margaret Jean Court
Margaret Jean Court is a renowned Australian tennis player who held the top spot in the world rankings. Some consider Court to be the greatest tennis player of all time. In 1970, she became the first woman of the Open Era and the second woman in tennis history to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year in singles. Throughout her career, Court won a record-breaking 24 Grand Slam singles titles. She also achieved 19 victories in women's doubles and 19 in mixed doubles. In total, Margaret Court has 62 Grand Slam victories. She holds the record for the highest winning percentage on all court surfaces (grass, clay, hard, and carpet), with a rate of 91.74% (1177 wins, 106 losses). Court also shares the record for the most Grand Slam singles titles won as a mother with Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters.
Early Life and Tennis Career
Margaret Smith was born on July 16, 1942, in Albury, New South Wales, Australia. She was the youngest of four children and grew up with two older brothers and a sister. From birth, Margaret was left-handed, but she was later taught to use her right hand. Margaret started playing tennis at the age of 8, and in 1960, at the age of 17, she won her first of seven Australian Open singles championships. After Wimbledon in 1966, Margaret took a temporary break from the sport. In 1967, she married Barrymore Court, and she became known as Margaret Smith Court or Margaret Court. A year later, she returned to the tennis court and won all four Grand Slam tournaments in singles in 1970. The following year, while pregnant with her first child, Daniel, who was born in March 1972, Court lost in the Wimbledon final to her compatriot Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Court returned immediately after giving birth and participated in the US Open. Her second child, Marika, was born in 1974, and a year later, Margaret resumed playing. She missed most of 1976 due to the birth of her third child and returned to competition in early 1977. However, that same year, she retired from the sport after discovering she was expecting her fourth child. Margaret Court's last Grand Slam tournament participation was in 1975. Alongside Martina Navratilova and Doris Hart, Margaret Court is one of three tennis players to have achieved a complete set of titles in all four Grand Slam tournaments in singles, same-sex doubles, and mixed doubles. Additionally, she remains the only athlete to have won at least 12 Slam titles twice.
Later Life and Controversies
On May 12, 1973, Court unfortunately lost a highly publicized match to 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, a former world number one male player, who claimed that any male player, even at his age, could easily defeat any of the top female tennis players. The match took place in Ramona, California, and Riggs won with a score of 6-2, 6-1. It was reported that Court did not take the match seriously enough, assuming she would win easily. Four months later, American player Billie Jean King challenged Riggs and defeated him soundly. In 1979, Court was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in January 2003, the Melbourne Park court with a capacity of 6,000 spectators was renamed the "Margaret Court Arena" in her honor. In the same year, her images appeared on Australian postage stamps. Currently, she resides in Perth, Western Australia. Margaret Court was raised Catholic but converted to the Pentecostal church in the mid-1970s. In 1983, she underwent specialized training, became an ordained minister in 1991, and continues to serve as the senior pastor of the Victory Life Centre in Perth. Court is known for her controversial views on homosexuality and has repeatedly stated that athletes like Martina Navratilova and other lesbian or bisexual players are a bad influence on young athletes and could ruin the sport. In November 1994, while addressing the parliament in Canberra, Court declared that "homosexuality is an abomination before God" and equated it with abortion. She has also opposed legislation that grants equal legal rights to gay and lesbian individuals in creating families, firmly believing that homosexuality can undermine the institution of the family.
