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THE INTERVIEW: TENNIS CHAMPION TURNED PASTOR MARGARET COURT ON TENNIS, HER FAITH IN CHRIST AND THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A LIFE IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Margaret Court

Champion Australian tennis player turned pastor, Margaret Court has recently released her autobiography. She speaks with DAVID ADAMS about her tennis career, her faith in Christ, and her call as a pastor…

Champion Australian tennis player turned pastor, Margaret Court has recently released her autobiography charting her rise from a humble family in Albury to the pinnacle of world tennis and then, after a life-transforming encounter with Christ, as the founder of Margaret Court Ministries and Victory Life Centre churches. She speaks about her tennis career, her faith in Christ, and her call as a pastor…

Congratulations on the book. One of the over-arching themes is your determination as a person. How do you think that helped you in your journey to tennis success and what was it, do you think, that drove you?
“I don’t know – you know my mum nearly died having me and I nearly died – maybe [it] was built in me to survive. And as a little girl, you know…I was very much a tomboy and I liked to win. It was always sort of there from a very little girl and there was always something there that I wanted to achieve…”

You didn’t particularly receive a lot of family support in stepping out to play tennis.
“No, my mum didn’t even want me to play and I think she only ever saw me play once. There wasn’t a great understanding of it….My dad used to just say ‘Well, that’s good’, ‘I hope you win’, ‘You’re the best’…And I had a very good coach [Wal Rutter]. I think I was very fortunate. He was behind me, he saw the potential and he directed me. Otherwise I probably would never have done it…”

Margaret Court

TENNIS CHAMP TURNED PASTOR: Margaret Court, who still holds the record for the most tennis grand slam singles titles – 24 – went on to found Margaret Court Ministries and Victory Life Centre churches in Western Australia. PICTURE: Chris Brown Photography

 

“Even as a little girl I was taught that my tennis was a gift from God and the press used to say to me ‘Why are you so good?’. I would say ‘It’s a gift from God’ – I didn’t hesitate on that. I think I always knew He was there…I knew there was something far greater than me. Sometimes I’d be in a place and I thought I can’t go on and I’d just ask God to help me and…an inner strength would come…”

Obviously, particularly in the latter half of your career and ever since, your husband Barry Court has been one of your key supporters – both  in your role as a player but also as a pastor?
“Yeah, well, we’re 50 years married this year. (He’s) always was a great encouragement and was in my tennis career. I think that’s when I started playing some of my best tennis…And going into ministry, when I said ‘I believe I’m called to be a pastor’, he said ‘Well, you better do it’. He’s always been there and I’ve always been there for him with everything’s he’s done…”

Of all the awards and accolades that you’ve received both on and off the court, what’s meant the most to you?
“Oh, I never thought about that. I don’t know. They’re all things that have honoured me and I really appreciate it but it’s not something that I think about all the time. They’re all great honours…and I’m just grateful, that’s all, really.”

During your tennis career there were ups and downs – the game with the American Bobby Riggs in 1973 comes to mind with regard to the latter. Was that the low point of your career?
     “I think probably one of the greatest disappointments for me was when I was seeded number one in the world to win (Wimbledon in 1962) and I lost in the first round [to then relatively unknown Billie Jean King]…We really didn’t play for ourselves, we played for our nation and I wanted to be the first Australian woman to win Wimbledon…
     “I think the Bobby Riggs one was [disappointing] because most people forget I won three out of the four majors in that year and [the loss] overtook all that…It was a disappointing time too.”

You also talk in the book of your faith and going to a Catholic Church from an early age. How important was your faith to you?
“Even as a little girl I was taught that my tennis was a gift from God and the press used to say to me ‘Why are you so good?’. I would say ‘It’s a gift from God’ – I didn’t hesitate on that. I think I always knew He was there…I knew there was something far greater than me. Sometimes I’d be in a place and I thought I can’t go on and I’d just ask God to help me and…an inner strength would come…”

You speak about the experience of being ‘born again’ in the early 1970s. What was that experience like and how did it change your faith?
“When I did give my heart to Christ, I just had a real encounter – the presence of God just sort of overtook me – and I knew that I knew that something happened…Even the press, when I went back onto the circuit, they said ‘What is it? What’s happened? Something has changed.’ Because those press would travel with us all year round, they knew us very well, and so it was something that happened to me and it’s never left me.”

When did you know that you were going to become a pastor?
“I went through [a] period where…I was sick and had [heart problems], depression, insomnia and ‘life wasn’t worth living’. I still didn’t know much about Scriptures, about the Bible, and somebody said to me ‘Why don’t you go and learn something on faith in Bible school?’…I knew Jesus healed but I didn’t know how to get it.
     “[So] I went to Bible school in ‘82 and ‘83 and then [during] the second year, I was totally healed. They said I’d be on medication for the rest of my life and I was totally healed from heart trouble and depression and insomnia…
     “People knew about my testimony so I was asked to share at different places all across the nation. I started Margaret Court Ministries – going out and talking to people in hard areas who had nothing and helping and teaching on depression and family. I did all that for five years…and I was praying to God, ‘Send somebody to be a pastor to teach what I’m teaching’ because people would say to me ‘Where can we go to hear what you’re teaching?’. I was doing the dishes and I saw a picture and I knew somehow that it was me that was going to be the pastor…. That’s how it started and now we’re in 22 nations, an international Bible training centre…with students from 13 nations. So it’s grown over the 21 years.”

What’s been your greatest joy as a pastor?
“I think the greatest joy to me is [that] you see people’s lives changed, people getting healed, people [who think] life is not worth living turn around…You see marriages restored, you see young people getting off drugs and alcohol. [And most] of all, I think, people giving their heart to Christ and getting saved.”

And the greatest challenge?
“Well, it’s getting bigger and bigger…Within a few years there will be a ‘bat change’ but I’ll always be involved somewhere, particularly probably in the healing side and our churches in the nations. I think, there comes a time, you know, [when] it’s your time to pass it on to somebody a bit younger. But I love it…”

You mentioned the importance of Scriptures to you before. What is a key lesson that you’ve learnt out of the Bible that’s shaped and helped you through life?
“I think I understood from giving my life to Christ that He comes to live on the inside; that we are a spiritual being – we live in a body and we have a soul which is an area of the mind. And He said, ‘Be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ and ‘As a man thinketh, so is he’ so what we think on and what we put in is very important. Because so many people today get bitter or get hurt or [feel] resentment. But you know, we’re to walk in love. You see a world today that is very self-oriented, very self-centred and it’s all about I instead of we and I think the Bible is really very much our TV guide to life – it’s all in there about marriage, it’s all in there about friendships, it’s all in there about communication…I always say it’s the roadmap for success…And I always think if I had of known a little bit of what I know now, particularly about the mind, I probably would have won a lot more games.”

Margaret Court The Autobiography

 

“Find a good coach…You can take a very good athlete and can make them a champion but I think it’s very important to have a good coach…[who can] take you in the right direction…And you have to love it…”

– Margaret Court on what advice she would give to young players starting out.

One of the things that you have been quite outspoken about has been same-sex relationships. Why you have been so strong on that issue?
“Why I’m so strong is because, from the beginning of the Bible…it talks about God created man for woman and woman for man…I always see that it’s a choice, that people are not born this way. You look at childhoods, you look at things that happen in life…They say in America 92 per cent of homosexual people have been abused or something has happened in their life….
     “I have nothing against homosexual people – they think you hate them [but] I don’t…I don’t hate them but it is a choice and I think [we should] protect marriages. If they want to live a lifestyle like that, go ahead, live a lifestyle like that but don’t touch marriage because marriage was ordained between a man and a woman to multiply the Earth, to have children. And that’s how God created and made it.”

And I gather from reading the book, it has cost you some relationships, particularly in the tennis world?
“Yes, I think, you know, there’s always a price to pay but I think the thing that upsets me is that they portray that you hate the person. No, I don’t hate the person, I don’t hate anybody, and I think that’s probably what’s hurt more than anything.”

In the book, you are critical of some of the behaviour of some tennis players on the court – people like John McEnroe, your great rival Billie Jean King and even [Australian] Nick Kyrgios. What do you think is the answer?
“Well, it goes back to the child…Because even in the Scriptures it says ‘Parents you should train up your children in the way they should go’. And that doesn’t mean by going to church – that means everything in life and the disciplines. And I remember when I was little, I threw my racquet into the back fence and I thought my coach didn’t see me but he did and he said ‘If you ever do that again, I’ll never coach you’. And it’s the people around you when you reach higher – they build that character into them; they build those disciplines into them….”

To a young player starting out today who wants to enter the world of professional tennis, what advice would you give to them?
“Find a good coach…You can take a very good athlete and can make them a champion but I think it’s very important to have a good coach…[who can] take you in the right direction…And you have to love it – you can’t put the [young players] out in the court for four hours too early, they’ll grow to hate it. And let them enjoy different sports up until about 14 or 15 and direct them into that. I think in our time…we all loved it from an early age but we were not pushed into playing for hours and hours where it all becomes a grind.”

And, lastly, I gather you’re not worried if Serena Williams, now on 23, breaks your record of 24 grand slam singles titles?
“Well, records are there to be broken…and I don’t lose any sleep over it. Nobody will ever break my 64 grand slam [titles] and I think if you’re good enough to do that, well you deserve it.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Margaret Court: The Autobiography is published by Pan Macmillan Australia

 

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