The Australian Open kicks off next week, but one familiar face to the sport has decided not to partake this year.
Tennis legend Margaret Court has revealed to the Herald Sun that she will be skipping the 2018 Australian Open, in a move some are calling a boycott.
Instead of attending the tournament this year, Court has decided to spend the time at her holiday house where she will "do more crabbing".
Throughout last year, Court resurfaced to provide her opinions on marriage equality and the postal survey, with her anti-LGBTI+ views causing some to petition the Margaret Court Arena be renamed.
Court doubled-down on her stance, calling marriage equality a "trend" that will lead to a "genderless generation".
Despite some believing Court's absence from this year's Australian Open was due to Tennis Australia distancing themselves from her controversial and widely criticised comments, Court told the Herald Sun, "I don’t run from things, I face them".
Deciding not to face the tournament anyway, Court also had some stern words for any players who planned to boycott playing on the arena named in her honour.
"I think that is petty if they do that and it says what’s in their heart," Court said before adding, "I think that’s very childish — but that’s not up to me and it doesn’t affect me".
Last year Court wrote an open letter declaring she would boycott Qantas for its support of marriage equality, later she went on to claim tennis is "full of lesbians" then said the "gay lobby" was attempting to "promote the devil's work".
Court has always denied being homophobic, despite making comments like when she compared the Safe Schools program to Nazi and communist propaganda, saying she was just "speaking from a biblical side", and claiming that anyone calling her legendary tennis career into question "should be ashamed".
Last year the Pentecostal minister was portrayed in the film Battle of the Sexes by Jessica McNamee, who hit out against Court's Qantas boycott on Instagram, captioning a photo of herself and the film's star Emma Stone, "This 'Margaret Court' believes in marriage equality and supports any corporation that does the same".
