By Heather McNeill
Tennis great Margaret Court was helped by another acclaimed Australian sporting figure when some of her awards and medals were allegedly stolen during a burglary at her City Beach home on Australia Day.
A WA Police spokeswoman said the coastal abode of Court, 80, and her husband Barry was targeted on Thursday evening.
“It will be alleged about 8pm, two men gained access to the premises via the front entrance door,” she said.
“Once inside, it will be further alleged the accused rummaged through the victim’s property and stole a number of items including awards, medals and jewellery.
“A number of the items were located in nearby bushland and gardens.”
The Courts were on holiday at the time and watched the unfolding incident through CCTV.
The intruders were disturbed by neighbours including Australian cricketing legend Justin Langer.
When contacted, Langer confirmed he had been neighbours with Court for two decades and said he saw the alleged burglars leaving her property.
However, he declined to go into detail about the incident and played down his role in the arrests.
Two men from Edgewater, aged 33 and 34, have been charged with one count of aggravated home burglary and commit and one count of stealing.
They are due to appear in a Perth court next month.
Court told media on Tuesday: “I pray for the young guys and I pray they come to know Christ”.
The tennis star, who won 24 major singles titles, is also known as the Reverend Dr Margaret Smith Court.
In 1960, aged 17, she won the first of seven consecutive Australian Open singles titles and in 1962 became the first Australian woman to win a grand slam tournament abroad when she won the French and US Championships.
Court played as an amateur until 1968 when she went on to complete a grand slam by winning all four major singles titles in 1970, part of a record six consecutive major singles victories.
After the birth of her first child, she went on to win three grand slam singles titles, eventually retiring in 1977.
Brought up as a Catholic, she is now a prominent voice of a Perth-based Pentecostal movement she established 25 years ago.
She has been a vocal critic of same-sex marriage and believes homosexuality is a choice.
Court was criticised in May 2017 after writing a letter to a newspaper decrying Qantas, the largest airline in Australia, for being a corporate supporter of same-sex marriage and saying that she would boycott the airline. The letter, and further follow-up interviews, led to calls to rename the Margaret Court Arena.
In 2020, her Margaret Court Community Outreach charity was denied a Lotterywest grant for a freezer truck on the basis of her public statements on gay people. She subsequently announced she would lodge a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission of Western Australia.
Court has lived in her oceanside home in City Beach for 24 years, after briefly putting the property on the market in 2021 for $2.9 million.
The home, which sits on a quiet 1204-square-metre corner block a stone’s throw from Floreat Beach, was also listed in 2013 but never sold.
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