Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has responded to calls from Australians to change the name of Margaret Court Arena to honour Ash Barty.
Immediately after Barty announced her shock retirement from tennis on Wednesday, Aussies flocked to social media calling for the name change at Melbourne Park.
Court is one of Australia’s greatest tennis players but has lost a lot of public support in recent years over controversial comments regarding same sex marriage and transgender people.
Addressing the calls on Thursday, Mr Andrews said it was too early to be discussing a name change given Barty had only just retired.
“Let’s not take away from what is a celebration of an amazing tennis career by plunging headfirst into that debate.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk earlier revealed that Barty has knocked back the offer of a statue of her in her home state.
“I’m not sure that she necessarily wants a stadium named after her. That’ll be driven by her,” Mr Andrews said.
“I reckon she might be much more interested in … promoting the next generation of young tennis players to come through rather than naming stadiums after herself.”
Mr Andrews has previously condemned Court’s controversial opinions, but said the focus right now should be on celebrating Barty’s career.
“I don’t think that we do her justice by diving into (that). That’s a separate issue,” he said.
“That’s not fair on a wonderful career that we should celebrate.
“Let’s not dredge up that other debate that’s pretty controversial.”
Aussie great Pat Rafter agreed with Mr Andrews’ sentiments, telling 3AW: “She doesn’t want all the hoo-ha that goes along with it.
“We all fell in love with her because she’s the girl next door and she’s never changed.”
However Rafter said: “I think she’s really deserving of every stadium in Australia.”
Ash Barty emboldens everything positive about life and is an excellent role model for the next generation to follow your own path.
