Legend Bio: Margaret Court

Margaret Court won 24 Grand Slam singles titles, an all-time record in women's tennis. The Australian achieved this across the course of a career that spanned the amateur days and Open Era, her dominance most vividly captured in 1970 when she became the second woman, after Maureen Connolly in 1953, to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam. The feat required overcoming a leg cramp and a 6-3, 5-2 deficit against Olga Morozova in Paris and playing through an ankle injury to defeat Billie Jean King in a 46-game Wimbledon final.

Court's Grand Slam singles crowns were won at the Australian Open (1960-66, 1969-71, 1973), Roland Garros (1962, 1964, 1969-70, 1973), Wimbledon (1963, 1965, 1970), and the US Open (1962, 1965, 1969-70, 1973). She reached 29 major finals, winning 24, and going 11-12 in Open Era title bouts. Her 11 Australian Open singles titles, including seven in a row, remain a tournament record.

One of the first players to embrace weight training in the gym and with a formidable reach that earned her the nickname "The Arm", Court’s prowess extended powerfully to doubles. Over a 15 year period, she completed a career Grand Slam and collected 19 major titles, winning the Australian Open eight times (1961-63, 1965, 1969-71, 1973), Roland Garros four times (1964-66, 1973), Wimbledon twice (1964, 1969) and the US Open on five occasions (1963, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1975). 

She also won 21 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, giving her a total of 64 major championships across all disciplines – another all-time record, for women or men. She is one of just three women to achieve a "Triple Crown" – winning the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the same Slam – which she did at the 1963 Australian Open and the 1970 US Open. She is also the only player to win all 12 major titles on offer at least twice during her career.

Aside from her fearsome Grand Slam record, Court was a force year-round on the international circuit. In her especially dominant 1970 season, she won 21 of 27 tournaments entered, and went 104-6 in matches. In the Open Era she won 92 titles, and nearly 200 overall. Representing Australia, she was a member of four victorious Federation Cup teams (1964-65, 1968, 1970). 

Court's statistical record is only more astonishing given her career was punctuated by breaks to start a family; she gave birth to her son Daniel in 1972 and returned to the tour after Wimbledon, and had subsequent breaks after her daughters Marika and Teresa were born. She played her final event in 1977 upon learning she was pregnant with her fourth child, Lisa. With Kim Clijsters, she shares the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a mother – three.

Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979, Court was ordained as a minister in the Pentecostal church (Reverend Court) in 1991 and toured Australia in a mobile ministry. In 1995, she founded a church, Victory Life Centre, in Perth. Among various accolades for her historic career, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2007 and was elevated to Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2021. Show court one at Melbourne Park, home of the Australian Open, is named in her honor.