Margaret Court

Margaret Court

Margaret Jean Court (née Smith; born 16 July 1942), also known as Margaret Smith Court, is a retired World No. 1 Australian professional female tennis player and Christian minister. Best known for her sporting career, at one point she was ranked as the world's top female tennis player. Over her career, she won more Grand Slam titles than any other tennis player in history.

In 1970, Court 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 (still current) 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 time, all surfaces (hard, clay, grass and carpet) singles career winning percentage of 91.68 (1180–107) is an all-time record. Her Open era singles career winning percentage of 91.37% (593–56) is also unequaled. Her win-loss performance in all Grand Slam singles tournaments was 90.12% (210–23). She was 95.31% (61–3) at the Australian Open, 90.38% (47–5) at the French Open, 85.10% (51–9) at Wimbledon and 89.47% (51–6) at the US Open. 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)". She is regarded by some to be the greatest female tennis player of all time.

Having converted from Catholicism to Pentecostalism in the 1970s, Court became a Pentecostal Christian minister in 1991, and later founded the Margaret Court Ministries. She is noted as a vocal critic of LGBT rights in Australia.