Carlton Supporters Club

Margaret court has achieved things no one else has and did it in an era that contained greats such as evonne goolagong,  Billie jean king, and Martina Navratilova.  She held the title of all 4 grand slams in one calender year twice during her career.

Margaret court has achieved things no one else has and did it in an era that contained greats such as evonne goolagong,  Billie jean king, and Martina Navratilova.  She held the title of all 4 grand slams in one calender year twice during her career.

I cannot fathom why we are devaluing her sporting achievements because she won 11 Aussie opens with qualifying statements.  

She played in an era with her peers, and achieved a lot against them.  Why the push to requalify what a GOAT is?

Yep. Only the “Everyone has a right to be a bigot” crew would back Court over Serena.

Of course it doesn’t - vectors have nothing to do with bigotry unless you speak corporate jargon (and I don’t).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/08/25/serena-williams-margaret-court-grand-slam-record/

Food for thought.

To be totally frank, it is almost impossible to compare records from one era to the next.

Rules change, conditions change, even equipment.  And almost all of these changes are to the benefit of the players, eg there were no tie-breakers in Court's era, they played on less predictable surfaces, and they used racquets that were ridiculously heavy and user-unfriendly compared to the graphite models of today.

All of this means that most modern-day players can have much longer and relatively injury-free careers than 50+ years ago.  They are also far more affluent so they can employ the best support crew, coaches, personal trainers, physios etc etc. to keep them going throughout the year, as well as each tournament week.

So, our American friend how penned this article has conveniently forgotten to add that it was much tougher to simply get to the end of the tournament in the 50's and 60s.  Serena may have had to battle tougher opponents, but she had the luxury of returning to a penthouse suite in between games and getting a personal massage.  I'm betting Rod Laver and Margaret Court didn't have those same benefits......

Margaret court has achieved things no one else has and did it in an era that contained greats such as evonne goolagong,  Billie jean king, and Martina Navratilova.  She held the title of all 4 grand slams in one calender year twice during her career.

I cannot fathom why we are devaluing her sporting achievements because she won 11 Aussie opens with qualifying statements.  

She played in an era with her peers, and achieved a lot against them.  Why the push to requalify what a GOAT is?

There is some truth to that, but I think you've focused on one side of the equation, i.e the aspects that were tougher back then, and I think a more balanced exposition is required.