Tennis Australia’s snub to legend
Tennis Australia will recognise but not celebrate the 50th anniversary of Margaret Court’s grand slam year, as the sport’s governing body seeks to contain the latest crisis surrounding its all-time greatest player.
The organisation’s chief executive, Craig Tiley, flew to Perth for a regular board meeting on Thursday night with fellow directors before this weekend’s Fed Cup final between Australia and France. Court’s looming milestone was likely to dominate discussion.
Court is planning to attend the tournament after publicly calling on Tennis Australia to honour her anniversary at next year’s Australian Open in the same way it lauded Rod Laver’s 1969 grand slam during this year’s tournament.
Sources familiar with the matter said Tennis Australia was planning to mark the occasion and flew a film crew to Perth earlier this year to interview Court about her career.
Tennis Australia will formally recognise her rare achievement in winning all four major singles titles in a calendar year.
However, there will be no celebration of Court.
The icy relationship between Tennis Australia and Court is a product of her vocal opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage, which this year prompted her career rival, Billie Jean King, to call for her name to stripped from the Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park.
The question of how to reconcile Court’s achievements with her faith-based views divided prominent figures in Australian tennis.
John Alexander, a Davis Cup hero who now serves in the Morrison government as a backbench MP, agreed with Court that her personal views should not lessen her tennis legacy.
‘‘You have got to celebrate her career,’’ he told and
‘‘Everything that she did as a tennis player should be celebrated.
‘‘She is a preacher. She believes devoutly in what she says. What is popular and accepted these days may not be consistent with her views so she has been vilified. But to deprive her of any acknowledgement of what a great player she was is not right.
‘‘If you go back to the time when Billie Jean King was openly gay and left her husband for a woman Margaret would have been seen with her Christian virtue as a pillar of society. She hasn’t changed, but now we totally accept the right of people to marry someone of the same sex. Margaret hasn’t changed, but the times have changed.’’
Wendy Turnbull, a three-time finalist at major tournaments, was more circumspect.
‘‘I think some of the things she has said regarding this are absolutely crazy. However it is freedom of speech and Australians have this,’’ said Turnbull, who started her professional tennis career in 1975 just as Court’s career was coming to an end. ‘‘What Margaret achieved is special and she worked hard to do this and she represented Australia well while playing tennis.
‘‘We should recognise her grand slam 50th anniversary, but how I don’t know. It should not be overboard.’’
This appears unlikely. Margaret Court has not attended the Australian Open since 2017, before her public comments about the influence of women in tennis and transgender children became a flashpoint in the marriage equality debate. It is unclear whether she will return in January.
Court told The Age and
Morning Herald that no-one from Tennis Australia had spoken to her about its plans to mark her 50th anniversary. A spokeswoman for Tennis Australia said nothing had been finalised.
Tennis Australia last year flew Rod Laver from America to attend the Australian Open and later helped the United States Tennis Association organise a tribute dinner for Laver at the Museum of Modern Art in New York during the US Open. Celebratory events were also held by the All England Lawn Tennis Club and at Roland Garros.
Court has declared she deserves equal treatment and will not come to the Australian Open unless she is duly honoured. –