These efforts at expunging Court’s achievements all come in direct response to her beliefs as a devout Pentecostal Christian. In 2012, she publicly opposed same-sex marriage in Australia, and in 2017 declared that she would boycott national airline Qantas over its support for the cause. The backlash has been sustained and ferocious, with Martina Navratilova declaring: “Her myopic view is truly frightening.”
But Court backtracks not an inch of conviction in asserting either her cores or her right to express them. Asked whether it grives her to see Williams fail to voice even a modicum of respect for her career, she says: “I think a lot of it is because of being a minister and making a stand for my beliefs. I have had a lot of bullying. But we should be able to say what we believe. I’ve got nothing against anybody. I respect everybody, I minister to everybody. I love the game still. I teach a lot of young people today, and I use illustrations from tennis about the discipline, the commitment, the focus. Sport brings so much to your life.”
Is it becoming more difficult to uphold her beliefs in the face of such rancour and hostility? Court gives an unequivocal answer. “I became a Christian when I was No 1 in the world,” she explains. “You will never change me from that. This is what I believe and what the Bible says. People miss out on the reality, which can be so wonderful in your life. I’m 80 now, and I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family and a wonderful church. We put out 100 tons of food into the community every week. I love it. I loved my tennis days, I believe it was a gift from God, and I love what I do today.”
Even altruistic work can be complicated, though, given the extent to which Court has been ostracised both in Australia and overseas. Recently, she was refused a state lottery grant as a consequence of her “biblical views”. “You still get bullied by LGBT groups,” she says. “Even when I’m helping the poor, some companies are not allowed to give my church things because of my name.”
There are vehement demands, too, for Melbourne Park’s Margaret Court Arena to be renamed, with LGBT lobbyists calling for the change in reaction to her “consistent attacks” on their community. “Well, they got everything they wanted in marriage, and everything else,” Court shoots back. “So, I think, ‘Why, when you should be so happy you’ve got that, are you still taking it out on people if they haven’t got the same beliefs?’ That’s what I don’t understand.”
‘The Aussie Amazon’
In the minds of younger tennis followers who have grown up with Williams’ remorseless dominance, Court belongs to the realm of sepia. But a half-century on, her body of work is still staggering. Across her amateur and professional career, she won 1,180 of 1,287 matches, earning the moniker “the Aussie Amazon” for her supreme fitness, which owed much to her running drills on sand hills. At the majors, once singles, doubles and mixed titles are added together, her record trounces that of Williams, 64-39. “The 64,” she predicts, with good reason, “I don’t think anyone will ever touch.”
She also amassed that prodigious total far more quickly than anyone before or since. “Serena has played seven years more than I did,” Court points out. “I finished in my early 30s. People forget that I took two years out. I first retired, like Ash Barty, when I was 25, thinking I would never return to tennis. I got married, had a baby, but then had one of my best years, winning 24 out of 25 tournaments.”
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