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Flat White

Margaret Court, the Australian Open – and Tennis Australia’s closed, cowed minds

20 January 2020

2:33 PM

20 January 2020

2:33 PM

So much for our world that continually preaches tolerance, diversity and acceptance. 

Whenever someone does not fit the Left’s current concept of tolerance, diversity and acceptance, it’s a whole new ball game. 

With the 2020 Australian Tennis Open now underway, instead of Tennis Australia serving the world an ace by just getting on and celebrating the incredible tennis champion’s unbeaten record and the fiftieth anniversary of her calendar grand slam, they have gone all woke. 

Tennis Australia said late last year that it would ‘recognise but not celebrate’ Margaret Court.  

Pathetic. 

No one still quite knows exactly what’s in store. 

Margaret Court has amassed more major titles than any other player in history and is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. 

Between 1960 and 1977, Court won a record 64 Grand Slam tournament titles including 24 singles, 19 women’s doubles and 21 mixed doubles. 

She also shares the record with Belgium’s Kim Clijsters for major titles won as a mother (three). 

Margaret Court’s achievements have earned her multiple honours, including induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, an MBE and her face on an Australian postage stamp. 

At the end of her career she became involved in the Pentecostal church and went on to become ordained as a Christian minister in 1991 and founded her own church, the Victory Life Centre in Perth. 


We all know the Australian legend came under fire for her views on same-sex marriage and transgender athletes.  

Of course she holds strong views. All religious leaders hold strong views.  

Her stance against gay marriage — legalised in Australia in 2017 — comes from her religious beliefs. She believes the Bible’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. Many people do. 

She wrote an open letter to Qantas saying she would be boycotting it because it had become an active promoter of same-sex marriage (Qantas CEO Alan Joyce married his long term partner Shane Lloyd last year).  

However, she has repeatedly said just because she didn’t agree with people, didn’t mean she hated them. 

When same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia in 2017, 61.6 per cent voted in favour, while 38.4 per cent voted ‘no’. 

New South Wales had the lowest ‘yes’ vote as a result of western Sydney electorates with high immigrant populations voting against changing the definition of marriage. 

After Islam, Christianity was the religion most strongly correlated with a ‘no’ vote. 

That result was barely reported. Why? Simple. It didn’t fit the Left’s narrative — and Labor was in full swing balancing trying to be trendy in its approach to everything as it was gearing up for 2019. We all know how that turned out. 

Believe it or not, you garner more respect from the public by being able to stand by an opinion you hold by explaining why. Naturally, not everyone will agree with you, but they will admire the fact you are doing something they can’t, not folding just to be popular.  

Margaret Court is entitled to her views, just as everyone is entitled to their views. Yet she isn’t a keyboard warrior or a troll. She simply stands firm.  

She is forthright and strongly opinionated, yet condemned for her religious beliefs. I’m yet to be convinced that if she were a follower of another religion which also held the same beliefs around these issues that she would be as condemned as she is. 

It is a little ironic that as a tennis player, she had a reputation for being quiet and shunning the limelight at every opportunity. 

She has said previously that she doesn’t run from things, she faces them.  

Last year, Australian great Rod Laver was honoured at all four of the majors marking 50 years since the second of his own Grand Slams.  

Wimbledon has said that it will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Margaret Court’s win, as it did with Laver. The French Open and US Open are yet to decide what they will do. 

So, Australia will wait and see if Tennis Australia capitulates to the woke or actually shows some leadership and gives credit where credit is due. 

American tennis great Billie Jean King has previously said that Margaret Court Arena should be renamed due to Margaret Court’s views. There would be people out there who might want the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York to revert to the USTA National Tennis Center because of King’s own views. 

Martina Navratilova won 56 Grand Slam championships, Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slam titles, Margaret Court won 64 Grand Slam titles and remains unbeaten. 

The green-eyed monster is never far away, now is it? 

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