Margaret Smith Court

Tennis Player / Clergywoman

Margaret Smith Court was the dominant women's tennis player of the 1960s. As Margaret Smith she went to Wimbledon in 1962 as a heavy favorite, but in a famous upset lost to American Billie Jean Moffit (later Billie Jean King). Smith returned the next year and became the first Australian to win it all. She retired in 1966, married and started a family, but returned to tennis in 1970. That year Margaret Smith Court won the rare Grand Slam: singles titles at Wimbledon plus the U.S., French and Australian Open tournaments. All in all, Court won 62 Grand Slam events (singles and doubles), the most in history. In 1991 she was ordained as a Christian minister and founded the Victory Life Church in Perth, Australia. She was enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979.

Extra credit: Court won the Australian Open every year from 1960-1966 and 11 times in all, the last in 1973... Her record of 62 major titles has lasted into the 21st century... The only other women to complete the Grand Slam in one year are Maureen Connolly (1953) and Steffi Graf (1988).

Other Australian Open champions: Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati.