Margaret Smith Court
Margaret Court AO, MBE (née Smith; born 16 July 1942), also known as Margaret Smith Court, is a retired world No. 1 professional tennis player. She is currently a Christian minister in Perth, Australia but 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 major tournaments in the same calendar year). Court won a record 24 of those titles, a record that still stands. 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, which she accomplished twice. Her all surfaces (hard, clay, grass, and carpet) singles career winning percentage of 91.68% (1180–107) is one of the best of all-time, according to the Sporteology website. Her open era singles career winning percentage of 91.37% (593–56) is also unequaled, as is her open era winning percentage of 91.7% (11-1) in Grand Slam finals. 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)". In 2010, the Herald Sun newspaper of Melbourne, Australia called her 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. Court, however, is the only one in all of tennis history to complete a multiple slam set in all three disciplines: singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. Having converted from Catholicism to Pentecostalism in the 1970s, Court became a Pentecostal Christian minister in 1991 and later founded the Margaret Court Ministries. In this capacity she has been a vocal critic of legal recognition of LGBT rights, for which she has been criticised.