‘I always admired Serena, but she never admired me’, says Grand Slams record holder

The woman with the most singles titles in Grand Slam tournaments claims to admire Serena Williams, but she doesn’t believe the converse is true. In an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Margaret Court, 80, said she believed the tennis world had forgotten her.

The Australian won 24 Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open titles between 1960 and 1975. In total, she reached the final of one of tennis’s top four tournaments 29 times.

In the list of the biggest winners, she has a title advantage over Serena Williams, who retired from the courts earlier this month, and two over Germany’s Steffi Graf.

“Serena, I’ve always looked up to her as a player. But I don’t think she ever looked up to me. I don’t think about it much anymore. I was at Wimbledon this year and nobody came to talk to me. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,'” he said. to the British newspaper.

Court lives in Perth, in her native country, where she has been a pastor since 1995 and still follows tennis. And she finds that her name is rarely mentioned in the press. Especially in the midst of all the praise given to Serena Williams’ career.

The former tennis player is one of three in history to win all four major tournaments in the same year. In 1970, she was champion in Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. The other two to achieve the same feat were American Maureen Connolly, in 1953, and Steffi Graf, in 1988.

“It’s really sad because the press and TV these days, especially in tennis, don’t want to mention my name. It only happens when there’s no other way because I still have a lot of records. In 2020, I should have gone to Wimbledon to the 50th anniversary of the 1970 titles. But there was the pandemic, so the tribute never happened. Roland Garros never invited me, the US Open never invited me. I don’t lose sleep over it, but the tributes for what I did don’t happened. In my own country I won many titles, but they prefer not to mention my name”, he says.

Court believes that ostracism happens in response to the religious beliefs of a devout Christian Pentecostal. She has already declared that she is against same-sex marriage. Martina Navratilova, a naturalized Czech American and former world number one, criticized the Australian’s view as “really scary myopia”.

“I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a pastor and I stand by what I believe in. I’ve been bullied a lot. But we should be able to say what we believe. I have nothing against anyone, I respect everyone and I preach everyone. I still love the sport. I teach a lot of young people and use the image of tennis to talk about discipline, commitment and focus. Sport brings a lot to your life”, he adds.