Margaret Court says it was “very sad” the way Tennis Australia had treated her, claiming the peak body had discriminated against her because of her views on same-sex marriage.

Court was honoured at the recently-completed Australian Open to mark the 50th anniversary of her grand slam winning season but the 77-year-old – who once described homosexuality as an “abominable sexual practice” – was not impressed with the occasion.

“They [Tennis Australia] have pointed the finger at me and tried to discriminate in everything that I’ve done, and I think that’s very sad,” she told Channel Nine.

But TA, which had made it clear that it would celebrate her milestone but rejected her stance on gay marriage and homosexuality, said it had done everything it could for Court, including paying for her and 16 family members to attend a fortnight at the Open.

The body said she had agreed to all the arrangements before coming to Melbourne, including not having a chance to speak on centre court.

The Court situation escalated the day after the ceremony when former players Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe protested, calling for her name to be erased from Margaret Court Arena and replaced with that of Evonne Goolagong.

That also left Court unimpressed.

“I’d never go to another nation, whatever I thought of a person, I would never say, ‘Hey, you should take their name off a building, or off an arena, or a tennis centre’. I would never do that,” Court said. “I think that was very, very wrong.”