Chief Minister Andrew Barr has condemned Margaret Court for her anti gay marriage stance, saying she is using her profile to "intimidate" advocates.
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The openly gay politician returned serve via Twitter saying Court's conservative views deserved a boycott of their own.
A public firestorm erupted following Ms Court, namesake for the Australian Open venue Margaret Court Arena, saying she would no longer fly Qantas in protest as the airline had become actively supportive of same-sex marriage.
Ms Court stood by her views in a live interview on The Project on Friday. She stated she "had nothing against homosexual people", but asked that they "don't touch marriage".
She went further to say the debate on marriage equality was "very much one way" and opponents were "getting persecuted" and bullied.
Mr Barr said Ms Court was free to hold and express her conservative views but said "equally, those of us who disagree are free to express our views."
Ms Court, who remains the most successful player in grand slam history after securing 24 titles, is now a pastor at the Perth-based church Victory Life.
Mr Barr said Ms Court had clearly evoked her status as a past tennis champion to oppose Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's advocacy on marriage equality.
"Given that Mr Joyce was recently physically assaulted in Perth (via a pie in the face) because of his support for marriage equality, this further intervention by Margaret Court can only be seen as a further attempt to intimidate Mr Joyce into silence," he said.
Court's hard-line comments sparked fierce debate about freedom of speech, equality and the personalities and values we hold in high esteem as Australians.
Amid the anger many have signed petitions calling for her name to be stripped from the Australian Open venue.
While several politicians, including Prime Minister Turnbull and Bill Shorten, were reluctant to engage with calls for renaming the tennis arena, Chief Minister Andrew Barr weighed in on the issue.
He said renaming the facility was "worthy of community debate".
"I agree with Peter FitzSimons' statement that "Tennis is an inclusive game, and ever more inclusive in the 21st century. Does Melbourne Park really want to have an arena named after someone who stands so firmly against such inclusiveness, who is becoming a byword for bigot?" Mr Barr said.
