Margaret Court gives 'being bullied' reply after Australian Open boycott threats over former player's anti-gay comments

24-time Grand Slam singles champion Margaret Court, who is now a Christian pastor, recently said she is against gay marriage. She also mentioned that she will not be travelling with Australian airline Qantas, as their openly gay CEO Alan Joyce is a campaigner for marriage equality in the country.

"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," The Australian quoted Court as saying.

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Despite her achievements and contributions to tennis, her comments were never going to be taken lightly. The likes of Andy Murray, Samantha Stosur and Madison Keys criticised what Court said.

There are talks that tennis stars might boycott next year's Australian Open unless the court named after Court in her honour at Melbourne Park is changed.

"If something was to be done, I think it would be a lot more beneficial to do it before the tournament starts. For players to be in a position where you're in a slam and boycotting playing on the court, I think would potentially cause a lot of issues," Independent quoted Murray as saying.

"So I think if something was going to be happen and 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. So we'll see what happens."

Despite those comments, Court feels she does not deserve her name removed from the Australian Open stadium court as she earned it.

Richel Hogenkamp, who is an openly gay tennis star herself, said she does not agree with what court said at all and feels that they should change the courts name as some tennis players might not be comfortable playing in a court named after her.

Court later replied to the critcisims, saying she was being "bullied."

"I think it's bullying," Court said. "[I've got] nothing against homosexuals – as individuals, they can do what they want to do – but my belief as a Christian is marriage the Bible way and I think it's sad that these people are using that to try to hit below the belt."

Tennis stars were not the only ones who opposed Court. Fans took to Twitter to respond to the tennis legends comments and none of them was happy about what she said.