CAUGHT IN FURORE, COURT BLAMES GAY CONSPIRACY FOR STADIUM ROW
KEY RESULTS
Men’s third round: Milos Raonic (CAN x5) bt Guillermo GarcíaLópez (ESP) 6-1, 1-0 - retired; Pablo Carreño-Busta (ESP x20) bt Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x11) 7-5, 6-3, 6-4; Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x17) bt Jirí Veselý (CZE) 6-3, 6-4, 6-3; Horacio Zeballos (ARG) bt David Goffin (BEL x10) 4-5 - retired Women’s third round: Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) bt Lesya Tsurenko (UKR) 6-1, 6-4; Samantha Stosur (AUS x23) bt Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 6-2, 6-2; Kristina Mladenovic (FRA x13) bt Shelby Rogers (USA) 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 Sydney, June 2: Tennis great Margaret Court on Friday claimed a gay conspiracy from America was behind calls to strip her name from one of the Australian Open stadiums, after a furore over her views on homosexuality. The Australian also hit back at America’s Martina Navratilova, who lashed out at the 74-year-old church pastor’s “sick and dangerous” comments on gays in tennis and transgender children. Court’s
by two officials and retired in the locker room. Muguruza swept into round four of the women’s draw with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Kazakh 27th seed Yulia Putintseva. The Spaniard closed out victory with an ace in a match that featured 11 breaks of serve in 20 games played. “I think the more matches I play and statements have been widely criticised in the tennis world and prompted calls to rename Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena, or even boycott the venue at next year’s open Grand Slam.
But she remained defiant on Friday, saying renaming the stadium would be unfair and that she was being targeted by an American gay “lobby”.
“I think I’ve won more Grand Slams than any man or woman and if it is (renamed), I don’t believe I deserve it,” the
the toughest victories I think gives you self-confidence, successful feeling out there,” said Muguruza. “I think it’s important with all the three matches that I played that are not easy at all.” Muguruza plays either French 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic or American Shelby Rogers, who she beat in last year’s quarterfinals, for a place in the last eight. The Indian pair of 24-time Grand Slam singles champion told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“They could probably get 100,000 petitions in 24 hours because that’s how they work. There’s a lot of money behind it, and it’s coming from America.”
Asked if she thought a conspiracy was at work, Court replied: “Yes, I believe there is... I think the (gay) lobby, yeah. They are a minority in number but they do have a lot of money behind them.” Purav Raja and Divij Sharan advanced to the pre-quarter-finals after an upset win but their senior compatriot Leander Paes made an exit in the men’s doubles.
Unseeded Raja and Sharan upstaged the 15thseeded Austrian-Croat combo of Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a second-round match that lasted two hours and 11 minutes to enter the men’s doubles pre-quarter-finals.
In another second round match, Paes and his American partner Scott Lipsky lost 6-7, 2-6 to crash out of the tournament.
— Agencies