Margaret Court’s inflammatory and intolerant views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage will lead to a “suicide”, tennis great Martina Navratilova has said.

In an open letter addressed to the Margaret Court Arena and published by Fairfax Media on Thursday, Navratilova branded Court a “racist” and a “homophobe” and said the venue should be renamed to honour Australian tennis great – Evonne Goolagong Cawley – due to Court’s anti-gay position and controversial comments over the past week.

Court wrote a letter to the editor of The West Australian last week in which she announced she would boycott Qantas over the airline’s promotion of same-sex marriage.

The comments whipped up a storm and spurred calls from players and others for the removal of her name from the Melbourne stadium.

However, the controversy intensified further after the Aussie tennis legend associated transgender behaviour with the devil and fascism in a radio interview on Wednesday.

Speaking to Vision Christian Radio, she lamented “tennis is full of lesbians”.

She went on to say transgender and non-binary children were “all the devil”.

“But that’s what Hitler did and that’s what communism did – got the mind of the children. And there’s a whole plot in our nation, and in the nations of the world, to get the minds of the children.”

Navratilova, who won the Wimbledon singles crown nine times, believes seven-time grand slam winner Goolagong was better suited to bear the name of the stadium which hosts the Australian Open.

“How much blood will be on Margaret’s hands because kids will continue to get beaten for being different? This is not OK,” Navratilova wrote.

“Too many will die by suicide because of this kind of intolerance, this kind of bashing and, yes, this kind of bullying. This is not OK.

“The platform people like Margaret Court use needs to be made smaller, not bigger.

“Which is why I think it’s time to change your name. And I think the Evonne Goolagong Arena has a great ring to it.

“Now there is a person we can all celebrate.”

Players at this weeks’ French Open have been mostly critical of the stance of Court who is a Pentecostal pastor at a Perth church.

Gay Australian player Casey Dellacqua has reacted to her family being targeted for criticism by Court in the past, while fellow Aussie Samantha Stosur was left gobsmacked when told of Court’s latest remarks.

“That’s all pretty crazy stuff,” Stosur said after her second-round victory on Wednesday (local time).

“I think it’s pretty obvious that the whole tennis community out here has pretty much the same opinion and we’re going to all stand by that.”

Navratilova said she had “long ago forgiven” Court for comments in 1990 that being a lesbian made her a bad role model, but added that “demonising” and denying LGBT people rights was unacceptable.

But Navratilova said she was unaware of Court’s past comments about the apartheid regime in South Africa until the recent controversy.

“What I did not know about until now were the unabashed racist statements she made in the ’70s about apartheid in South Africa,” Navratilova wrote.

“Saying that South Africa dealt with the ‘situation’ (meaning people of colour) much better than anywhere else in the world, particularly the US: what exactly did she mean by that?”

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467

Beyondblue: 1300 224 636 or www.beyondblue.org.au

Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800

– with AAP