The threat of match-fixing has still not been eradicated, although there is little doubt progress has been made, while every sport continues to battle doping with each passing day.

More recently, though, it is the actions of some of the game's great former players which are casting a cloud over the sport.

Back in April, Ilie Nastase had his well-documented weekend of madness at a Fed Cup tie between his native Romania and Britain, where he managed to offend pretty much everybody with his ill-advised and deplorable comments.

This week, it has been the turn of Margaret Court, the Australian whose glittering career included an impressive haul of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. She sparked widespread condemnation with prehistoric rhetoric which has no place in today's society.

The 74-year-old, now a Christian pastor who is vehemently against same-sex marriage, prompted fury and rage in some circles when she claimed tennis was "full of lesbians" and, more outrageously, said transgender children were the "work of the devil".

Her transgressions represent the latest in a long list of incidents where Margaret has courted anger and disappointment. In 1970, she felt the need to say how South Africa's Apartheid regime had organised the racial situation there better than in the United States, while two decades later, Martina Navratilova was targeted when Court said she was a "bad role model" for youngsters because of her sexuality.

Navratilova was not about to let the controversial Australian get away with it again. "She is demonising trans-kids and trans-adults everywhere," the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion said.

"She is doubling down with her ridiculous comments about older women luring young girls on the tour to parties to turn them into lesbians.

"It is now clear exactly who Court is: an amazing tennis player, and a racist and a homophobe."

Judging by the evidence of the past week, and indeed her previous spoken misdemeanours, few would disagree.

Her quotes have led to calls for the Margaret Court Stadium at Melbourne Park, the venue for the Australian Open, to be stripped of her name. Others, including Court's compatriot Sam Stosur, have hinted they may boycott matches at the venue if action is not taken.

Tennis Australia insisted last month this would not happen. But one wonders whether they might now be considering a rethink.

On the other hand, it is hard to disagree with outspoken American John McEnroe, who gave his own personal view in a video for Eurosport, as part of his role as the "self-appointed commissioner of tennis".

"Margaret Court is telling us tennis is full of lesbians," the 58-year-old said. "The way I see it, there are three options regarding this statement.

"Number one - this is true. Who gives a f***?"

McEnroe's point is a valid one. Sport has moved on from the days when Court's views were harboured by many.

Although the lack of openly-gay players remains a concern for some, even if there were a lot of lesbians in tennis, who cares? Sexuality is much less relevant nowadays than it was before - they are still human beings, still sportspeople we pay our hard-earned money to watch. As long as they give it their all, be it for themselves, their country or their club, that is all that matters.

Court's comments also raise a catch 22 in sport. We want players, past and present, to offer their views on topics not exclusive to sport. Today's scenario of athletes and competitors being given a message to stick to by their army of public relations and communications executives, and daring not to stray from it, is an all too familiar one.

But the Australian has clearly gone too far, on more than one occasion. Her attitude belongs in the dark ages, along with Nastase's.

Court was not the only person to cause controversy during the first week of the French Open on the iconic red clay at Roland Garros. A little known Frenchman by the name of Maxime Hamou will be looking back on the past seven days and wishing he could turn back the clock.

The world number 287 shot to fame for all the wrong reasons for his conduct in a live Eurosport interview following his first-round exit at the hands of Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, where he attempted to repeatedly kiss a female reporter, Maly Thomas.

The 21-year-old put his arms around Thomas' shoulders and tried to kiss her on the head and neck as she turned him away. To his credit, he has since apologised but more would probably agree with Thomas, who said she would have "punched him" if they were not live on air.

Hamou was sent home from the tournament and had his accreditation revoked, meaning he is not able to hang around for the duration of the ongoing competition.

Perhaps the greatest shame amid all the misgivings of current and former professionals is that it somewhat overshadowed the quite heroic return of Czech star Petra Kvitová, whose career hung in the balance after she was stabbed in her dominant left hand during a knife attack back in December.

Kvitová was understandably emotional when she left court having made it to round two with victory over American Julia Boserup. After all, this was a player who did not start training fully until last month and barely touched a racket before March.

Her remarkable recovery unfortunately ended with defeat in the second round to another American, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but her presence lit up the tournament amid a dark cloud cast by the actions of others.

It is the sentiment from Kvitová which we should take home from a week tennis officials and bigwigs would rather forget. "It's a pleasure to be here and I'm happy I made the decision to play," she said.

"Thank you for everything, you helped me through this difficult time."