| Biography | Margaret Court, also known as Margaret Smith Court, is a retired World No. 1 professional tennis player and Christian minister from Australia. She is best known for her sporting career, in which she amassed more Major titles than any other 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 21 mixed doubles titles, giving her a record 64 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 (1180107) is an all-time record. Her Open era singles career winning percentage of 91.37% (59356) is also unequaled. Her win-loss performance in all Grand Slam singles tournaments was 90.12% (21023). She was 95.31% (613) at the Australian Open, 90.38% (475) at the French Open, 85.10% (519) at Wimbledon and 89.47% (516) 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. Court is one of only five tennis players all-time to win a multiple slam set in two disciplines, matching Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova, Frank Sedgman and Serena Williams. However, Court is the only one in all of tennis history to complete a multiple slam set in all three disciplines, Singles, Doubles and Mixed.
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. |