When is a legacy settled? That question was posed to Tennis Channel's Mary Carillo by Jon Wertheim in the latest Beyond the Baseline podcast (listen here) during a discussion about Margaret Court, the 24-time Grand Slam singles champion. The Australian's name graces an arena in Melbourne Park because of her illustrious tennis accomplishments; she was the first woman in the Open era to win a calendar-year Grand Slam.
But Court's court has come under fire given her comments about gay marriage and other social issues, with calls to strip her name from the arena growing louder. On Friday, Billie Jean King, one of the world's best-known LGBT advocates and herself a gay woman, said the venue should be renamed.
"I was fine until lately when she said so many derogatory things about my community—I'm a gay woman—about the LBGTIQ community," King said at a news conference. "That really went deep in my heart and soul. I personally don't think she should have (her name on the stadium) anymore."
Court's legacy is still being written, it seems, with her achievements on the court undeniable and her stances off it plain to see. Both of these are addressed in the latest video from Stories of the Open Era, our year-long look at 50 years of Open tennis: