Murray has say on Margaret Court Arena dispute

World tennis No.1 Andy Murray hopes a decision on the potential renaming of the Margaret Court Arena, one of the host venues for the Australian Open grand slam, can be reached before the start of next year’s event.

The arena is named after women’s tennis legend Margaret Court, who holds the record for the number of grand slam wins – 24. The Australian has recently drawn criticism for her views on same-sex marriage and a number of figures in tennis have called for the venue to be renamed.

Court said she would stop using the Qantas airline due to its support of same-sex marriage. “I am disappointed that Qantas has become an active promoter for same-sex marriage,” Court said in a letter to the West Australian newspaper.

“I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman as stated in the Bible. Your statement leaves me no option but to use other airlines where possible for my extensive travelling.”

Court’s comments have been condemned by, among others, Richel Hogenkamp, one of the few openly gay players on the women’s tour. Hogenkamp said the Australian Open should look into renaming the arena following Court’s comments, while Australian player Samantha Stosur suggested some players could boycott matches on the court at next year’s Australian Open, which runs from January 15-28.

Now Murray, a five-time finalist at the Australian Open, has had his say on the matter, and has urged the relevant parties to make a decision sooner rather than later.

“It’d be more beneficial to do something before the tournament,” Murray said, according to the BBC. “For players to be in a position where you’re in a slam and boycotting playing on the court, that would potentially cause a lot of issues.

“If the players come to an agreement – if they think the name should be changed or whatever – that should be decided before the event starts. But I would imagine a lot of the players would be pretty offended by that.”

Image: Johnwnguyen