What happens when a champion’s record doesn’t speak for itself? And what do you do when that champion demands to have their past achievements acknowledged if you reject the beliefs of they articulate now?

Tennis Australia had to revisit these questions this week when Margaret Court reminded it, and all of us, that a significant milestone is coming up. It’s a milestone that the sport’s peak organisation would like nothing more than to shout from the rooftops. Court is the best women’s tennis player that’s ever been. And she’s ours. But of course her anti-gay beliefs make it a lot more complicated that it would have otherwise been.

Telling the Herald's Chip Le Grand this week that the organisation should “sit and talk with me’’ ahead of the 50th anniversary of her grand slam year, Court said she won’t return to Melbourne Park during the Australian Open unless she is welcomed. Do something you don’t really want to do and be happy about it, was her request.

If you listened really carefully when the story was published on Thursday, you could hear the groans emanating from Tennis Australia headquarters. It had already gone through one round of controversy with the push to remove Court’s name from centre court at Australia’s most prestigious tennis venue.