Jun 2nd, 2017

Jun 2nd, 2017

Tennis Australia is refusing to buckle as pressure mounts on the governing body to change the name of Margaret Court Arena following the legend's vocal opposition to same-sex marriage.

Australian No.1 Samantha Stosur believes Court may leave TA with no choice if she continues speaking out, while Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic also waded in on Friday, demanding an apology from the 24-time grand slam winner.

While Court is now claiming she is the victim of a US-led conspiracy to have her name removed from one of Melbourne Park's flagship stadiums, Stosur said the 74-year-old Christian pastor may already have gone too far.

"She's digging a very big hole for herself at the moment," Stosur said after her third-round French Open win in Paris.

"And for whatever reason, she wants to keep talking about it, and I don't think she's making more friends by doing that.

"And look, I think if it continues down this road, then maybe there may be no other option but to do that (change the name).

"But we'll see. Again, I don't necessarily think that's going to happen.

"I don't even know who makes the call to do that so ... but she's not helping herself by making the comments that she's continually making."

Stosur said Court was tarnishing her legacy and isolating herself with comments like "tennis is full of lesbians".

"I actually really like the column that Martina Navratilova wrote the other day. It was named for her tennis and everything else, but you've got to be a good person," said the former US Open champion.

"You don't want to be offside with so many different groups of people around the world.

"It's about the tennis, but it's also about who you are and I think if there's not a nice light in that, then why should there be that name up in lights?

"But it's not for me to decide."

Raonic said Court's views - including that transgender children are the work of the devil - have stunned the tennis community.

"I think they're sort of really shocking comments to hear," Canadian Raonic said.

"I won't get necessarily into the politics on what something should and shouldn't be called, but I think to some extent definitely there should be some kind of apology and whatever repercussions."

Claiming she is being bullied, Court says talk of having the arena named in her honour changed is unfair.

"I think I've won more grand slams than any man or woman and if it is (renamed), I don't believe I deserve it," she told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

"They could probably get 100,000 petitions in 24 hours because that's how they work. There's a lot of money behind it, and it's coming from America."

Asked whether she thought there was a conspiracy, Court added: "Yes, I believe there is ... I think the (gay) lobby, yeah. They are a minority in number but they do have a lot of money behind them."

Tennis Australia is making no comment on the calls for a name change or concerns of a possible player boycott of the arena at next year's Australian Open.

©AAP2017