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Margaret Court

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Margaret Smith Court

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Margaret Smith Court
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(born July 16, 1942, Albury, N.S.W., Austl.) Australian tennis player. She dominated women's tennis in the 1960s, winning 66 grand-slam championships in her career, more than any other person. In 1970 she became the second woman (after Maureen Connolly) to win the grand-slam (the Wimbledon, U.S., Australian, and French singles titles). In 1963, with fellow Australian Kenneth Fletcher, she became the only player to achieve the grand-slam in doubles as well as singles.

For more information on Margaret Smith Court, visit Britannica.com.

Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:

Margaret Jean Smith Court

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During her 18-year career, Australian tennis player Margaret Smith Court (born 1942) won more major championships than any other player, male or fe male, has ever won. She won 62 major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, including a Grand Slam (the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open) in 1970.

Born Margaret Jean Smith on July 16, 1942, in the rural town of Albury, Victoria, Australia, Smith Court was one of four siblings. Her father worked in a cheese and butter factory. Neither Smith Court's parents nor her siblings had any interest in tennis, but she was drawn to the game, and she began playing by herself on the road between her house and the nearby Albury tennis courts, using balls that had been hit past the club's hedges. For a racquet, she used a long, thin board she had found; when she was eight, a friend of her mother gave her an old one with a square head, no leather on the grip, and a number of broken strings., and she began using that instead of the board.

In addition to playing in the road, Smith Court and three boys who were her age often sneaked through a hole in the fence at a nearby country club to play when the courts were unoccupied. The courts were partially hidden from the clubhouse by a thick hedge, but if a ball hit the backstop, it would be visible, so she learned to play while standing at the net and letting the others hit the ball at her from the baseline, cutting off shots so the ball would not hit the backstop. Later, when she became a world-class player and observers praised her volleying, she said it was the first stroke she ever learned.

When she was between the ages of eight and ten, the club owner, Wally Rutter, threw her out so many times that he and his wife eventually decided it would be easier to give her a membership and pay for her to take lessons. The Rutters did not have children, and they took Smith Court under their wing and gave her coaching that her parents could not afford.

Rising Worldwide Star

When Smith Court was a teenager, she moved to Melbourne, where she trained at a club owned by former world champion Frank Sedgman, who told her that he believed she could be the first Australian woman to win a Wimbledon title. To pay for some of the costs of her training, she worked in Sedgman's office as a receptionist. By the time she was 18, she won the Australian Open championship. It was the first of her seven consecutive Australian Open titles and 11 overall.

In 1961, after her second Australian Open win, Smith Court joined the international tour. Her youth and relative inexperience made her nervous on the court and shy when she was not playing, but she won the Kent All-Comers Championship and made it to the semifinals in the Italian Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the French Open.

In 1962, Smith Court decided to travel and play independently of the Australian national team. She was more confident and self-reliant, and she won the French and American championships. At Wimbledon, she played newcomer Billie Jean King in the first round and lost in a difficult match. "I had to fight back tears of humiliation," she later said, according to Trent Fayne in Famous Women Tennis Players. "That was the start of the personal rivalry between Billie Jean and myself … and [it] plunged me into the deepest despondency of my life." Despite this loss, and her emotional reaction to it, she was ranked first in the world at the end of the year. She also received encouragement from huge numbers of fans, as well as from other tennis players.

In 1963, Smith Court played against King again in the finals at Wimbledon. This time she won. In 1964, however, tired from constant play and travel, she had an off year. She won the U.S. Open and made it to the finals at Wimbledon in 1965, and in 1966, feeling that she had missed out on much of the fun she should have had during her teenage years, she decided to retire from tennis.

Grand Slam Winner

Smith Court went back to western Australia, where she opened a boutique. In October 1967 she married wool broker Barry Michael Court. He encouraged her to return to playing tennis, and in 1968 she was back on the courts.

In 1969, she won every Grand Slam tournament except Wimbledon. In 1970, she won all the Grand Slam tournaments, even though she played Wimbledon with a sprained ankle. Playing against King in the Wimbledon finals, Smith Court battled for hours in a record 46 games. Smith Court eventually won 14-12, 11-9. It was only the second time in tennis history that a woman had completed a Grand Slam. About the match, Rex Bellamy wrote in the Times of London, "Here were two gloriously gifted players at their best, or so close to it that the margin was irrelevant. They gave us a marvellous blend of athleticism and skill, courage and concentration. They moved each other about with remorseless haste and hit a flashing stream of lovely shots. The match was punctuated throughout by rallies of wondrously varied patterns."

In 1971, Smith Court defended her Wimbledon title and lost to Evonne Goolagong, a rising star. Two weeks later, she played in another tournament and did poorly. After going to her doctor for tests, she found that she was pregnant. Although she continued to play tennis for fun until the seventh month of her pregnancy, she immediately stopped competing. "I would never have played at Wimbledon if I'd known I was pregnant," she told Richard Yallop in the Australian. "If anything had happened to the child, I would have regretted it forever." She noted that playing tennis for recreation was far different from playing in international competition, where "The pressure is so great and you drive yourself very hard."

Smith Court took time off to have her baby, but in 1972 she came back to win six tournaments, earning $22,662 in prizes. She then won 16 of the next 18 tournaments she played in, adding $40,000. Confidently, she accepted a challenge from Bobby Riggs to play a singles match and, if she won, to donate the winnings to charity. Smith Court lost that match, but it did not mar her 1973 season. She won 18 of 25 tournaments, including the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens.

Retired from Tennis

Between 1962 and 1973, Smith Court was ranked number one seven times. In 1960 she won her first major championship, and she won her last, the U.S. Open, in 1975. She continued to play until 1977, then quit in order to have more time with her children. In 1979, Smith Court was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame. During her career, she also won two ABC Sports Personality of the Year Awards and was made a Member of the British Empire for her services to sport and international relations

Smith Court's life began undergoing a change in 1973, when a friend gave her a religious book. Although she had been raised Catholic, she didn't find that religion touched her very deeply. She decided to become a born-again Christian. After retiring from tennis, she studied at the Word of Faith Bible College in Perth, Australia. She later wrote on the Johnny Lee Clary International website, "The next few years were a real struggle for me dealing with a heart condition, depression and insomnia but what got me through was total devotion to God and … the Bible." Smith Court told Louise Perry in the Australian that she believed her faith healed her heart condition, and she commented to Jane Cunningham in ABC Online, "They said I'd be on medication for the rest of my life and I've never had medication since and been totally healed."

Became a Minister

In 1991, Smith Court was ordained as a minister, and with the help of two other pastors, she founded Margaret Court Ministries, Inc. She turned an abandoned carpet warehouse in an industrial section of Perth, Australia into a church, Victory Life Church, where she preached a Pentacostal ministry. In an interview on ABC Online, she told George Negus, "To me, people go to a football match and yell and scream when they're excited about something, or go to a tennis match and enjoy it, and, I mean, that's how church should be." By 2003, 1,500 people were attending the church, where Smith Court often laid hands on members to heal them, and where she usually preached the sermon during the two-hour service. One of her daughters, Marika, worked with her. In 2001, Smith Court announced plans to buy an old hospital and turn it into a home for people with incurable illnesses, drug addicts, unwed mothers, abuse victims, and "any other shipwrecked ship which needs to be fixed," she told Louise Perry in the Australian.

Although she no longer played, Smith Court still followed tennis, particularly the Grand Slams. She commented that many women players of the 21st century were "robots," according to John Thirsk in the Surry Hills, Australia Sunday Telegraph. She said this was the result of rigid coaching schemes, and also noted that the young women "lacked hunger because many were simply content to play for a comfortable living rather than chase major honors," according to Thirsk.

Smith Court told Vivienne Oakley in the Adelaide, Australia Advertiser that she believed Australia could produce more champions by returning to individual coaching: "I think we put our people into squads too young and champions are very sensitive people. I believe we lose them in the squads at a very early age." She said she never would have become a champion if she had come through the modern coaching system, noting, "I had good mentors. Sometimes I played and won for them, not myself." And, she told Thirsk, "I've seen what happened with some others way back, who had been promising, winning national junior titles. They had individual coaches and because they were good, went into a squad. You've never heard about them again."

Books

Fayne, Trent, Famous Women Tennis Players, Dodd, Mead and Co., 1979.

Great Women in Sports, Visible Ink Press, 1996.

Grimsley, Will, Tennis: Its History, People and Events, Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Periodicals

Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia), September 6, 2003.

Australian (Sydney, Australia), June 20, 2001; March 18, 2002.

Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia), September 8, 2003.

Independent (London), August 23, 2003.

Sunday Telegraph, (Lodnon), January 25, 1998.

Times (London), June 28, 2001, p. 6.

Online

"Court, Margaret Jean," Australian Women,http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0179b.htm (January 2, 2004).

"Episode 19: Margaret Court," ABC Online,http://www.abc.net.au/ (January 2, 2004).

"Tribute to Margaret Court," Johnn Lee Clary International,http://www.johnnyleeclary.com/margaret_court.htm (January 2, 2004).

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Margaret Smith Court

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Court, Margaret Smith, 1942-, Australian tennis player. Playing tennis from age eight, she rose to prominence in the early 1960s. Ranked first in world standings six times beginning in 1962, she retired in 1966, but returned to the game in 1968, and in 1970 became the second woman (Maureen Connolly was the first) to win the grand slam. In 1973 she lost a nationally televised match to Bobby Riggs, setting the stage for Riggs's match with Billie Jean King, which gave women's tennis greater prominence. She won her fifth U.S. Open championship that year.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Margaret Court

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For this tennis player's detailed statistics, records, and other achievements, see Margaret Court career statistics.
Margaret Court
AO MBE
Country Australia
Residence Perth, Western Australia
Born (1942-07-16) 16 July 1942 (age 69)
Albury, New South Wales
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight 149 lbs. (67.5 kg)
Turned pro 1960
Retired 1977
Plays Right-handed
Int. Tennis HOF 1979 (member page)
Singles
Career titles 192 (92) during open era
Highest ranking 1 (1973)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open W (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973)
French Open W (1962, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1973)
Wimbledon W (1963, 1965, 1970)
US Open W (1962, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1973)
Doubles
Career record –
Career titles 48 during open era
Highest ranking –
Last updated on: 27 January 2007.

Margaret Court AO MBE (born 16 July 1942), also known as Margaret Smith Court, is an Australian tennis player and Christian minister. Best known for her sporting career, at one point she was ranked as the world's top tennis player.

In 1970, she became the first woman during the open era and the second woman in history to win the singles Grand Slam (all four majors in the same calendar year). Court won a record 24 of those titles during her career. She also won 19 women's doubles and 19 mixed doubles titles, giving her a record 62 Major titles overall. She is the only woman to win the mixed doubles Grand Slam, and she did it twice. Her all surfaces (hard, clay, grass and carpet) career match winning percentage of 91.74 (1177/106) is an all-time record.Her win-loss performance in all Grand Slam singles tournaments was 90.12% (210–23), at the French Open 90.38% (47–5), at Wimbledon 85.10% (51–9), at the US Open 89.47% (51–6), and at the Australian Open 95.31% (61–3). She also shares the Open Era record for most Grand Slam singles titles as a mother with Kim Clijsters. The International Tennis Hall of Fame states, "For sheer strength of performance and accomplishment there has never been a tennis player to match (her)".[1] She is regarded by some to be the greatest female tennis player of all time.[2]

Following her retirement, in 1991 she became a Pentecostal Christian minister, founding the Margaret Court Ministries and becoming a vocal critic of LGBT rights in Australia.

Contents

Biography

 This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2008)

Born Margaret Smith in 1942, in Albury, New South Wales,Court was the youngest of the four children of Lawrence Smith and Catherine Smith (née Beaufort). She has two older brothers, Kevin and Vincent, and a sister, June. She is a natural left-hander who was persuaded to change to a right hand grip. She began playing tennis when she was eight years old and was 17 when she won the first of seven consecutive singles titles at the 1960 Australian Championships.

After Wimbledon in 1966, Court temporarily retired from tennis. She married Barrymore Court in 1967 and became known as Margaret Smith Court or Margaret Court. She returned to tennis in 1968 and won all four Grand Slam singles titles in 1970. The next year, she lost the Wimbledon singles final to Evonne Goolagong Cawley while pregnant[citation needed] with her first child, Daniel, who was born in March 1972. Court made a comeback the same year and played in the US Open and played throughout 1973. Her second child, Marika, was born in 1974. She started playing again in 1975. After missing most of 1976 after having her third child, she returned to the tour in early 1977 but retired permanently in 1977 when she learned that she was expecting the last of her four children. Her last Grand Slam appearance was in 1975.

Court is one of only three players to have achieved a career "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles, winning every possible Grand Slam title – singles, same-sex doubles and mixed doubles – at all four Grand Slam events. The others are Doris Hart and Martina Navrátilová. Court, however, is the only person to have won all 12 Grand Slam events at least twice. She also is unique in having completed a boxed set before the start of the open era in 1968 and a separate boxed set after the start of the open era.

Court lost a heavily publicised and US–televised challenge match to a former World No. 1 male tennis player, the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, on 13 May 1973, in Ramona, California. Court was the top-ranked women's player at the time and it has been written[who?] that she did not take the match seriously, assuming that she would win without difficulty. Using a mixture of lobs and drop shots, Riggs beat her 6–2, 6–1. Four months later, Billie Jean King beat Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes match in the Houston Astrodome.

In 1979, Court was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

In January 2003, Show Court One at Melbourne Park was renamed Margaret Court Arena. Also in 2003, Australia Post honoured her and fellow Australian tennis player Rod Laver by putting their images on postage stamps.

As of October 2008, Court lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Her father-in-law, Sir Charles Court, and brother-in-law, Richard Court, were Liberal premiers of Western Australia.

Playing style, titles and world rankings

During the 1960s Court was considered to have a very long reach which added a new dimension to women's volleying. With a height and reach advantage and being extremely strong, she was very formidable at net and had a great overhead shot.[3] She was considered unusually mobile for her size and played an all attack, serve and volley style which, when added to her big serve, dominated conservative defensive players.[4] Part of what helped her win was her commitment to fitness training. Ms. Court was dubbed "The Aussie Amazon" because she did weights, circuit training and running along sandy hillsides. This training helped keep her relatively injury-free through most of her career.[5]

Court won a record 62 Grand Slam tournament titles, including a record 24 singles titles, 19 women's doubles titles and a record 19 mixed doubles titles. She won 64 Grand Slam tournament titles, including 21 mixed doubles titles, if the shared championships at the Australian Championships/Open in 1965 and 1969 are counted. The finals were not played because of bad weather. Court could have won even more mixed doubles titles had the event been held at the 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1975 Australian Opens.

Court won 62 of the 85 Grand Slam tournament finals (72.9%) she played, including 24–5 (82.8%) in singles finals, 19–14 (57.6%) in women's doubles finals and 19–4 (82.6%) in mixed doubles finals.

Court reached the final in 29, the semifinals in 36, and the quarterfinals in 43 of the 47 Grand Slams singles tournaments she played. She won 11 of the 16 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered beginning with the 1969 Australian Open and ending with the 1973 US Open. She also won 11 of the 17 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered, beginning with the 1962 Australian Championships and ending with the 1966 Australian Championships. Court was 146–2 (98.6%) against unseeded players in Grand Slam singles tournaments.

Court is the only player to have won the Grand Slam in both singles and mixed doubles. She won the singles Grand Slam in 1970, the mixed doubles Grand Slam in 1963 with fellow Australian Ken Fletcher, and the mixed doubles Grand Slam in 1965 with three different partners (Fletcher, John Newcombe and Fred Stolle).

Court won more than half of the Grand Slam events held in 1963 (8 of 12), 1964 (7 of 12), 1965 (9 of 12), 1969 (8 of 12), 1970 (7 of 11) and 1973 (6 of 11).

According to the end-of-year rankings compiled by London's Daily Telegraph from 1914 to 1972, Court was ranked World No. 1 six times: 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969 and 1970. Court also was ranked No. 1 for 1973 when the official rankings were produced by the Women's Tennis Association.

Religious faith

Born into the Christian faith, Court was raised as a Roman Catholic but converted to Pentecostalism in the mid-1970s. In 1983, she gained a theological qualification from the Rhema Bible Training Centre and in 1991 became a minister. Court subsequently went on to found a ministry known as Margaret Court Ministries.[6] In 1995, Court founded a Pentecostal church known as the Victory Life Centre in Perth.[7] She still serves as its senior pastor. Her television show, A Life of Victory, appears on the Australian Christian Channel. She has generally embraced teachings associated with the Word of Faith movement.[6]

Views on homosexuality

Court has become well known as a consistent critic of homosexuality and same-sex marriage rights in Australia.[8] In 2002 she campaigned against laws proposed and passed by the Government of Western Australia that granted same-sex couples the equal legal rights to opposite-sex couples,[9] and in 2011 publicly spoke out against federal government plans to legalize same-sex marriage.[10] Although stating that she does not hate homosexuals and welcomes them into her congregation, she has publicly expressed her opinion that homosexual activity is a sinful "choice" and that the LGBT community are "aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take".[11]

Court has been criticised for such statements by openly homosexual tennis players Billie Jean King, Rennae Stubbs and Martina Navratilova, the latter of whom called them "truly frightening".[12][13] An LGBT rights protest group urged spectators to display rainbow gay flag banners at the Margaret Court Arena during the 2012 Australian Open, and called for the renaming of the venue.[14] Court condemned their actions as "a political stunt".[15][16][17] Court has also been criticised by the Australian Press Council (APC) for propagating false and "potentially dangerous" information about homosexuality in an article published in the Herald Sun tabloid. In response, the Australian Christian Lobby condemned the APC's decision, declaring it to be a "dangerous precedent against free speech".[18]

Career statistics

Main article: Margaret Court career statistics

Career timeline

  • 1960 – Won her first singles title at the Australian Championships but lost the junior girls final there to Lesley Turner Bowrey.
  • 1962 – Won three of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments.
  • 1963 – Became the first Australian woman to win a singles title at Wimbledon. She and Ken Fletcher became the only team to win all four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles during the same calendar year.
  • 1964 – Won three of the four Grand Slam mixed doubles tournaments. Her women's doubles title at Wimbledon completed her career "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles.
  • 1965 – Won three of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments and all four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, with three different partners.
  • 1966 – Temporarily retired.
  • 1969 – Won three of the four Grand Slam singles and mixed doubles tournaments.
  • 1970 – Won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments, defeating Kerry Melville Reid in the Australian Open final, Helga Niessen Masthoff in the French Open final, Billie Jean King in the Wimbledon final, and Rosemary Casals in the US Open final. Maureen Connolly Brinker in 1953 and Steffi Graf in 1988 are the only other women who have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments during the same calendar year.
  • 1971 – Won the Australian Championship for the 10th time. After losing the Wimbledon Singles Final, temporarily retired to prepare for the birth of her first child in March 1972.
  • 1972 – Returned to the tour after missing the Wimbledon Championships.
  • 1973 – Won three of the four Grand Slam singles and women's doubles tournaments. Became the first mother in the open era to win the Australian, French and US Open Championships. Lost her match with Bobby Riggs. Her women's doubles title at the US Open completed a "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles won exclusively after the start of the open era in 1968.
  • 1974 – Absent from the game due to the birth of her second child.
  • 1975 – Played the final Grand Slam singles match of her career, losing to Martina Navrátilová in a quarterfinal of the US Open 6–2, 6–4. Partnered with Virginia Wade at the US Open to win her 62nd Grand Slam title and 19th Grand Slam women's doubles title, defeating King and Casals in the final. This was Court's last Grand Slam title.
  • 1976 – Absent from the game due to the birth of her third child.
  • 1977 – Played the final singles match of her career, defeating Greer Stevens in the third round of the Virginia Slims Championships of Detroit 5–7, 7–6, 6–3. Court defaulted the quarterfinal to Françoise Durr upon learning that she was pregnant with her fourth child.

Records and achievements

All-time tournament records

  • These are all-time Grand Slam tournament records attained in both the pre-Open Era and Open Era of tennis.
Tournament Years Record accomplished Players matched
Grand Slam tournaments 1960–1973 24 titles Stands alone
Australian Open 1960–1973 11 singles titles Stands alone

Open Era records

  • These records were attained in the Open Era of tennis.
  • Records in bold indicate peer-less achievements.

Honours

See also

References

  1. ^ "Hall of Famers – Margaret Court Smith "The Arm"". International Tennis Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 19 November 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061119112638/http://www.tennisfame.com/famer.aspx?pgID=867&hof_id=150. Retrieved 2007-02-14. 
  2. ^ "Legend Margaret Court tips Sam Stosur to win French Open". http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/margaret-court/story-e6frf9if-1225874948364. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
  3. ^ Robertson, Max (1974). The Encyclopedia of Tennis. The Viking Press. pp. 174, 219. 
  4. ^ "NY Times: Aces of the Game". http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E6DA103BF93AA1575BC0A9679D8B63. Retrieved March 24, 2012. 
  5. ^ "Margaret Smith Court Career Retrospective". http://www.tennischannel.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=10190. Retrieved March 25, 2012. 
  6. ^ a b Brian Baxter, "Margaret Court's Word of Faith", The Skeptics, Vol 27 No 3, Spring 2007.
  7. ^ Victory Life Centre, Perth Western Australia
  8. ^ Gray, Stephen (15 December 2011). "Former tennis star Margaret Court serves up controversy over gay marriage". Pink News. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/12/15/former-tennis-star-margaret-court-serves-up-controversy-over-gay-marriage/. Retrieved 19 April 2012. 
  9. ^ "Damir may have a point, says our greatest women's player". Sydney Morning Herald. 2002-12-19. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/19/1040174301749.html 
  10. ^ Lacy, Bridget (7 December 2011). "Legend condemns gay marriage". The West Australian. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/12256170/legend-condemns-gay-marriage/. Retrieved 2011-12-12. 
  11. ^ Gray, Stephen (05 January 2012). "Former tennis star Margaret Court "does not hate homosexual people"". Pink News. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/05/former-tennis-star-margaret-court-does-not-hate-homosexual-people/. Retrieved 19 April 2012. 
  12. ^ Sheldrick, Drew (12 December 2011). "Tennis greats blast Court". Sydney Star Observer. http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2011/12/12/tennis-greats-blast-anti-gay-court/67902. Retrieved 2011-12-12. 
  13. ^ Gray, Stephen (15 December 2011). "Former tennis star Margaret Court serves up controversy over gay marriage". Pink News. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/12/15/former-tennis-star-margaret-court-serves-up-controversy-over-gay-marriage/. Retrieved 19 April 2012. 
  14. ^ Passa, Dennis (13 January 2012). "Tennis legend Margaret Court stirs clash on gay rights". The Florida Times-Union. http://jacksonville.com/sports/other-sports/2012-01-13/story/tennis-legend-margaret-court-stirs-clash-gay-rights. Retrieved 2012-01-14. 
  15. ^ "Court in same sex tennis furore". http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/court-in-same-sex-tennis-furore-20120112-1pwux.html. Retrieved 11 January 2012. 
  16. ^ Le Grand, Chip (23 January 2012). "Gays won't drive me from the Open, says Margaret Court". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/gays-wont-drive-me-from-open/story-e6frg6nf-1226242140162. Retrieved 2012-01-14. 
  17. ^ McCormick, Joseph (25 January 2012). "Margaret Court maintains stance on gay marriage". Pink News. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/25/margaret-court-maintains-stance-on-gay-marriage/. Retrieved 19 April 2012. 
  18. ^ Gray, Stephen (19 April 2012). "Complaints over Margaret Court's gay 'choice' article 'trash free speech', group says". Pink News. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/04/19/complaints-over-margaret-courts-gay-choice-article-trash-free-speech-group-says/. Retrieved 19 April 2012. 
  19. ^ It's an Honour – Member of the Order of the British Empire
  20. ^ It's an Honour – Australian Sports Medal
  21. ^ It's an Honour – Centenary Medal
  22. ^ It's an Honour – Officer of the Order of Australia

External links

Preceded by
Maureen Connolly Brinker (1953)		 Calendar year grand slam champions
1970		 Succeeded by
Steffi Graf (1988)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Related topics:
Bobby Riggs (American tennis player)
When Billie Beat Bobby (2001 Drama Film)
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