Margaret Court (born July 16, 1942, also known as Margaret Smith Court) is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Australia. In 1970, she became the first woman during the open era to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same calendar year. Court won 24 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other player. She won 62 Grand Slam titles overall (24 singles, 19 women's doubles, and 19 mixed doubles), again, more than any other player. Many consider her the greatest female tennis player. The International Tennis Hall of Fame states, "There has never been a tennis player to match (her)." Biography She was born Margaret Jean Smith in 1942, in Albury, New South Wales, the youngest of four children of Lawrence Smith and Catherine Smith (née Beaufort). Margaret Court began playing tennis when she was eight years old and was 17 when she won the first of seven consecutive singles titles at the Australian Championships in 1960. After Wimbledon in 1966, Court temporarily retired from tennis. She married Barry Court in 1967 and became known as Margaret Smith Court or Margaret Court. She returned to tennis in 1968. She won all four Grand Slam singles titles in 1970. The next year, Court lost the Wimbledon singles final to Evonne Goolagong Cawley while pregnant with her first child, Daniel, who was born in March 1972. Margaret Court made a comeback the same year and played in the U.S. Open. Her second child, Marika, was born in 1974. Court started playing again but retired permanently in 1977 when she learned she was expecting the third of her four children.
Court is one of only three players to have achieved a career "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles, winning every possible Grand Slam title – singles, same-sex doubles and mixed doubles – at all four Grand Slam events. The others are Doris Hart and Martina Navratilova. Court, however, is the only person to have won all 12 Grand Slam events at least twice. Margaret Court also is unique in having completed a boxed set before the start of the open era in 1968 and a separate boxed set after the start of the open era. Court is widely remembered for having lost a heavily publicized and U.S. televised challenge match to a former World No. 1 male tennis player, the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, on Mother's Day, May 13, 1973, in Ramona, California. Margaret Court was the top-ranked women's player at the time, and it has been written that she did not take the match seriously, assuming that she would win without difficulty. Using a mixture of lobs and drop shots, however, Riggs beat her handily 6–2, 6–1. Four months later, Billie Jean King beat Riggs in the even more famous Battle of the Sexes match in the Houston Astrodome to even the score. In 1979, Margaret Court was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. In January 2003, Show Court One at Melbourne Park was renamed Margaret Court Arena. Also in 2003, Australia Post honoured her and fellow Australian tennis Rod Laver by putting their images on postage stamps. Margaret Court now lives in Perth, Western Australia, and runs the Victory Life Centre, a Christian ministry. Court's father-in-law, Sir Charles Court, and brother-in-law, Richard Court, were Liberal premiers of Western Australia.
* 1960 - Won her first singles title at the Australian Championships but lost the junior girls final to Lesley Turner Bowrey. Grand Slam titles and world rankings Court won a record 62 Grand Slam titles, including a record 24 singles titles, 19 women's doubles titles, and a record 19 mixed doubles titles. She won 64 Grand Slam titles, including 21 mixed doubles titles, if the shared championships at the Australian Championships/Open in 1965 and 1969 are counted. The finals were not played because of bad weather. Court could have won even more mixed doubles titles had the event been held at the 1970, 1971, 1973, and 1975 Australian Opens. Margaret Courtwon 62 of the 85 Grand Slam finals (72.9%) in which she appeared, including 24-5 (82.8%) in singles finals, 19-14 (57.6%) in women's doubles finals, and 19-4 (82.6%) in mixed doubles finals. Court reached the finals in 29, the semifinals in 36, and the quarterfinals in 43 of the 47 Grand Slams singles tournaments she played during her career. Her won-lost record in Grand Slam singles tournaments was 210-23 .901 (47-5 at the French Championships/Open, 51-9 at Wimbledon, 51-6 at the U.S. Championships/Open, and 61-3 at the Australian Championships/Open). She won 11 of the 16 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered beginning with the 1969 Australian Open and ending with the 1973 U.S. Open. Margaret Court also won 11 of the 17 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered beginning with the 1962 Australian Championships and ending with the 1966 Australian Championships. During her career, Court was 146-2 (98.6%) against unseeded players in Grand Slam singles tournaments.
Margaret Court won more than half of the Grand Slam events held in 1963 (8 of 12), 1964 (7 of 12), 1965 (9 of 12), 1969 (8 of 12), 1970 (7 of 11), and 1973 (6 of 11). According to the end-of-year rankings compiled by the London Daily Telegraph from 1914 through 1972, Court was ranked No. 1 in the world six times: 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, and 1970. Court also was ranked No. 1 for 1973, when the official rankings were produced by the Women's Tennis Association. Career statistics Margaret Court won more than half of the Grand Slam singles tournaments she played (24 of 47) and 192 of the 300 singles tournaments she played overall. Her career singles win-loss record was 1,177-106, for a winning percentage of 91.74 percent. She won at least 100 singles matches in 1965 (113-8), 1968 (107-12), 1970 (113-6), and 1973 (100-5). Margaret Court won more than 80 percent of her singles matches against top 10 players (297-73) and was the year-end top ranked player seven times. Grand Slam finals Singles (29) Wins (24) Runner-ups (5) Honours * In 1967, Margaret Court was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for her services to sport and international relations.
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