Her religious views aside, Margaret Court deserves to be honoured for her tennis achievements

So you thought Australia’s summer of tennis had been a bumpy ride so far. Fasten your seatbelts, hang on to your hats, a bit of quarantine drama is nothing – Margaret Court is to receive an Australia Day honour.

Claims emerged on social media on Friday morning that Court will be promoted to a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia – the highest of the Australia Day honours – for her services to sport. She is currently an Officer of the order of Australia.

The trivial bickering over the quarantine conditions Australian Open players have to endure and whether they are being favoured over ordinary Australians who can’t get home will be dwarfed by the row this news has already provoked.

Court is a divisive figure and her outspoken views on homosexuality, conversion therapy, same-sex marriage and transgender people have made her a regular target. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has already set the ball rolling on the backlash, describing Court’s views as “bigoted quackery that costs lives”.

Court’s views are not shared by many of us – certainly not me. Her letter to a newspaper lamenting the birth of Australian tennis player Casey Dellacqua’s child in a same-sex relationship was particularly unfortunate. Many in the tennis community have never forgiven her for that.

But the truth of the matter is that, purely as a tennis player, Court is among the most deserving recipients ever of Australia’s highest honour.

When Serena Williams finally begins her Australian Open campaign next month she will have one aim in mind: equalling the record set by Court that has hung over her throughout her career. Court won 24 grand slams, Williams is stalled on 23.

Court is one of only three women to have won a calendar Grand Slam and was the first Australian woman to win Wimbledon, in 1963.

She dominated the sport from the time of her arrival on the tour as a teenager until her retirement. As well as her 24 singles grand slam titles, she won 19 women’s doubles titles and 21 mixed doubles titles and had a staggering 91.7 per cent winning percentage in majors.

Court is undeniably Australia’s greatest female player – one of our greatest athletes of all time. And surely this is what the honours system is for: to recognise and celebrate outstanding achievement.

To ignore her achievements on the tennis court and rule her out of recognition because of her religious views is to adopt a far too black and white view of the world.

Surely, we can be sophisticated enough to disagree with her ideas but recognise her as one of the nation’s great sporting heroes, worthy of this honour.