Australian Open 2012: Margaret Court's Anti-Gay Remarks Will Overshadow Tourney

Former top-ranked tennis star Margaret Court has started a media firestorm with anti-gay remarks leading up the the sport's first major tournament of the season.

Now the focus of the two-week Australian Open will be on Court's comments and their aftermath rather than the sport itself, which is truly unfortunate.

The Associated Press passed along Court's thoughts:

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"Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take,” the 69-year-old Court said in a December interview with The West Australian in Perth, where she lives.

“The fact that the homosexual cry is, ‘We can’t help it, as we were born this way,’ as the cause behind their own personal choice is cause for concern,” said Court, who became a Pentecostal minister in the 1990s.

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Court, who resides in Australia, has every right to believe whatever she wants, but you have to question her timing knowing full well these politically-charged comments would made headlines worldwide.

It comes off as if she is trying to use the Australian Open as a platform to further her ideas rather than a chance to celebrate the sport and Australia's rich history.

A former player herself, she should not have put today's players in the tough position of having to take a controversial stand on a subject that is so touchy. They will undoubtedly be asked about the comments during the run up to the tournament and during their post-match press briefings, so there's little doubt that these comments will overshadow the play itself.

It's a tournament that has treated her well in the past as she won it 11 times and had a court named after her due to that dominance.

While that shouldn't be in jeopardy because she expressed an opinion in the weeks before the grand-slam event, you can't help but wonder if the planned protest has her second guessing the decision to speak out at the time she did.

The focus during the Australian Open shouldn't be anything other than tennis. It shouldn't be viewed as a chance to grandstand about a particular issue whether it be gay rights or any other polarizing subject in today's world.

There is plenty of time throughout the year to have a debate about those issues. Right before the world turns the attention to a major sporting event at a venue where your name is on a stadium is not one of them. It has caused the officials to do a lot of damage country before the first ball on Monday.

Court's opinion is a strong one, so she won't back down from her personal feelings and that's fine. The tennis community probably just wishes she would have exercised better judgment in terms of deciding when to speak out so strongly.

Let's hope once play starts the issue takes a back seat, but it's tough to imagine that happening considering the amount of media attention the comments are getting.