I won five US Opens and a record amount in earnings – but I quit to become a pastor
pTENNIS legend Margaret Court won five US Opens and a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles#8230; before quitting to become a pastor./p
pThe Australian, 81, has claimed more Slams than any man or woman in the sport#8217;s history./p
figure id=attachment_23831280 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 847pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/09/22a7592f-ebb7-45b1-8268-00339936913b.jpg?strip=allamp;w=837 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23831280 width=837 height=960 /figcaption class=wp-caption-textMargaret Court won 24 Grand Slam singles titles/figcaptionfigcreditNews Group Newspapers Ltd/figcredit/figure
figure id=attachment_23831281 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 746pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/09/bf78177c-6f8e-4e89-b9dd-cd2ba49053f8.jpg?strip=allamp;w=736 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23831281 width=736 height=960 /figcaption class=wp-caption-textShe became a pastor after retiring from tennis/figcaptionfigcreditReuters/figcredit/figure
pBut 13 of those came during the Amateur Era #8211; before tennis turned professional in 1968./p
pShe won a further 11 before retiring in 1977 #8211; the last of which came at the 1973 a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/us-open-tennis/US Open/a./p
pCourt also claimed the a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/australian-open/Australian Open/a and a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/french-open/French Open/a titles in #8217;73, making it one of the most successful ever years for a single player #8211; albeit less fruitful than her 1970 season when she completed the Calendar Slam./p
pHer 1973 season saw her earn $200,000 #8211; a record for a female athlete across all sports at that time./p
pNowadays, she reportedly has a net worth of around $10million./p
pAfter her a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/tennis/tennis/a career, she then became a pastor./p
pRaised a Roman Catholic, she turned to Pentecostalism in the mid-1970s./p
pIn 1991, she was ordained as an independent Pentecostal minister, before founding the ministry #8220;Margaret Court Ministries#8221;./p
pSpeaking in 2017 about her new role, she told a aria-label=Sight Magazine (opens in a new tab) href=https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/features/7037-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 target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenerSight Magazine/a: #8220;People knew about my testimony so I was asked to share at different places all across the nation./p
p#8220;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./p
p#8220;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?’./p
p#8220;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./p
p#8220;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.#8221;/p
pThe Australian, 81, has claimed more Slams than any man or woman in the sport#8217;s history./p
figure id=attachment_23831280 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 847pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/09/22a7592f-ebb7-45b1-8268-00339936913b.jpg?strip=allamp;w=837 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23831280 width=837 height=960 /figcaption class=wp-caption-textMargaret Court won 24 Grand Slam singles titles/figcaptionfigcreditNews Group Newspapers Ltd/figcredit/figure
figure id=attachment_23831281 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 746pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/09/bf78177c-6f8e-4e89-b9dd-cd2ba49053f8.jpg?strip=allamp;w=736 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23831281 width=736 height=960 /figcaption class=wp-caption-textShe became a pastor after retiring from tennis/figcaptionfigcreditReuters/figcredit/figure
pBut 13 of those came during the Amateur Era #8211; before tennis turned professional in 1968./p
pShe won a further 11 before retiring in 1977 #8211; the last of which came at the 1973 a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/us-open-tennis/US Open/a./p
pCourt also claimed the a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/australian-open/Australian Open/a and a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/topic/french-open/French Open/a titles in #8217;73, making it one of the most successful ever years for a single player #8211; albeit less fruitful than her 1970 season when she completed the Calendar Slam./p
pHer 1973 season saw her earn $200,000 #8211; a record for a female athlete across all sports at that time./p
pNowadays, she reportedly has a net worth of around $10million./p
pAfter her a href=https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/tennis/tennis/a career, she then became a pastor./p
pRaised a Roman Catholic, she turned to Pentecostalism in the mid-1970s./p
pIn 1991, she was ordained as an independent Pentecostal minister, before founding the ministry #8220;Margaret Court Ministries#8221;./p
pSpeaking in 2017 about her new role, she told a aria-label=Sight Magazine (opens in a new tab) href=https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/features/7037-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 target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenerSight Magazine/a: #8220;People knew about my testimony so I was asked to share at different places all across the nation./p
p#8220;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./p
p#8220;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?’./p
p#8220;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./p
p#8220;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.#8221;/p