44 Facts About Margaret Court

Margaret Court completed the career Grand Slam in singles aged 21 with her victory at Wimbledon in 1963.

Margaret Court completed the Grand Slam by winning all four major singles titles in 1970, part of a record six consecutive major singles victories.

Margaret Court gave birth to her first child in 1972, but returned to tennis later in the year and won three major singles titles in 1973.

Margaret Court took similar breaks after her second and third children were born, retiring from the game in 1977.

Margaret Court is one of only three players in history to have won the "Boxed Set", consisting of every major title.

Margaret Court is the only player in tennis history to complete a double Boxed Set.

Margaret Court is one of only six tennis players to win a double career Grand Slam in two disciplines, matching Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova, Frank Sedgman, Doris Hart, and Serena Williams.

Margaret Court won the Fed Cup with Australia on four occasions.

Margaret Court was born on 16 July 1942 in Albury, New South Wales.

Margaret Court was the fourth and youngest child born to Maude and Lawrence Smith.

Margaret Court's mother experienced a difficult delivery and came close to dying in childbirth.

Margaret Court was raised in Albury where her father worked as a foreman at a cheese and butter factory.

Margaret Court played a variety of sports as a child, including basketball, cricket, softball and soccer, and had a reputation as a tomboy, joining "a group of neighbourhood boys who took pleasure in climbing trees, swinging on ropes over the river, and hitching free rides on trucks as they slowed".

Margaret Court received her early education at St Bridget's, the local Catholic parochial school.

Margaret Court discovered tennis at the age of eight, playing on her own by hitting a tennis ball against a wall with an old fence paling.

Margaret Court was later given an old racquet by her mother's friend and began sneaking in to the nearby Albury and Border Tennis Club with her friends to play on the grass courts.

Margaret Court later credited Rutter with encouraging her to pursue tennis professionally and developing her "killer instinct" and sense of sportsmanship.

Margaret Court moved to Melbourne at the age of 16 in order to be coached full-time by Frank Sedgman, a former world No 1.

Margaret Court moved in with her older sister and worked part-time as a receptionist at Sedgman's athletic centre.

Margaret Court got her to play on clay courts for the first time, with the intent that she would one day play the French Open.

Margaret Court became the first Australian woman to win a Grand Slam tournament abroad when she won the French and US Championships in 1962.

Margaret Court returned to tennis in November 1967, and in 1970 won all four Grand Slam singles titles.

Margaret Court made a comeback that year, playing in the US Open and throughout 1973.

However, Margaret Court is the only person to win all 12 Grand Slam events at least twice.

Margaret Court is unique in having completed "boxed sets" both before the Open Era and after it began.

Margaret Court was the top-ranked women's player at the time, and the New York Times claimed that she did not take the match seriously because it was a mere exhibition.

Margaret Court was considered unusually mobile for her size and played an all attack, serve and volley style which, when added to her big serve, dominated conservative defensive players.

Margaret Court was dubbed "The Aussie Amazon" because she did weights, circuit training and running along sandy hillsides.

Margaret Court won a record 64 Grand Slam tournament titles, including a record 24 singles titles, 19 women's doubles titles and a record 21 mixed doubles titles.

Margaret Court reached the final in 29, the semifinals in 36 and the quarterfinals in 43 of the 47 Grand Slams singles tournaments she played.

Margaret Court won 11 of the 16 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered, beginning with the 1969 Australian Open and ending with the 1973 US Open.

Margaret Court won 11 of the 17 Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered, beginning with the 1962 Australian Championships and ending with the 1966 Australian Championships.

Margaret Court is the only player to have won the Grand Slam in both singles and mixed doubles.

Margaret Court won the singles Grand Slam in 1970, the mixed doubles Grand Slam in 1963 with fellow Australian Ken Fletcher and the mixed doubles Grand Slam in 1965 with three different partners.

Margaret Court won more than half of all the Grand Slam contests held in 1963,1964,1965,1969,1970 and 1973.

Margaret Court was ranked No 1 for 1973 when the official rankings were produced by the Women's Tennis Association.

Margaret Court was raised as a Roman Catholic but became involved with Pentecostalism in the mid-1970s.

Margaret Court subsequently founded a ministry known as Margaret Court Ministries.

Margaret Court's television show, A Life of Victory, airs on Sundays on the Australian Christian Channel and locally in Perth on community television station West TV.

Margaret Court has generally embraced teachings associated with the Word of Faith movement and teaches her view of biblical doctrine.

Margaret Court has been a consistent critic of same-sex marriage in Australia.

Margaret Court was criticised in May 2017 after writing a letter to The West Australian decrying Qantas, the largest airline in Australia, for being a corporate supporter of same-sex marriage and saying that she would boycott the airline.

Margaret Court suggested that this and the similar incident from 2012 are calculated provocations, allowing Court to portray herself as the victim and use the publicity to her advantage, and show that "for better or worse, Court is the principal architect of her own image".

Margaret Court subsequently announced she would lodge a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission of Western Australia.