Ida Adamova (Ida Adamiants-Adamoff) – who lived in Paris and represented France in championships – from 1928 to late 1930 participated in various international tennis tournaments, including the Wimbledon tournament and the French Open Championship (Roland-Garros). She thereby became the first Armenian in history to participate in these renowned competitions.
Ida Adamova was born into the family of Vartan Adamiants in 1910.
Famous Russian tennis historian and journalist Boris Fomenko said: “The revolution of 1917 forced many of our compatriots to leave their homes and rush at their own risk to a foreign land. The fate of the young Muscovite Ida Adamova was no different.
She was not even ten years old when her father, Vartan, a wealthy Moscow-based Armenian, fleeing hunger, devastation, and the persecution of the Cheka escaped with his family to France. There, Adamov settled in the Paris suburb of Passy, on the Rue de la Tour. It is now that Passy is a fashionable district. But in the 1920s, it was a quiet, inconspicuous suburb, where the rent turned out to be quite affordable for the refugees who were strapped for money. ”
At the time, tennis was very common in Europe, first due to accessibility, and secondly because both men and women could take part in official tournaments. Dexterous and fast, Ida began to attend a tennis sports club.
Boris Fomenko said: “As time went on, the life of Russian émigrés gradually stabilized. In the spring of 1926, a small group of tennis players — former members of the once elite St. Petersburg Sportsmen’s Club — rented two sites in the Mamebi club in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie and soon set up a lawn tennis club under the authority of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. This was the first Russian tennis club not only in Paris but in the entire Russian diaspora.
Here, young girl Ida Adamova began her long-term affair with lawn tennis. The able girl learned everything on the fly. In 1928, 18-year-old Adamova won the first championship of Russia diaspora, beating Sofia Petrokokino, a highly experienced Moscow champion.
Two years later, Ida excelled at a highly competitive tournament in Évian-les-Bains and won the youth cup for tennis players no older than 21 in Monte Carlo. At that time, she also had to change her Nansen emigrant passport to a French passport. Otherwise, she would not be able to compete outside France.”
Since the early 1930s, Ida Adamova entered the ranks of the best tennis players in France. At this time, Ida took part in open championships in many European countries. Among her major achievements are the victories in the open championship of Spain in 1929 and 1930, in the Netherlands and Berlin in 1931, and in Italy and Romania in 1932. In the Wimbledon tournament and the Open Championship of France, Adamova reached the third stage in the singles and the final in the doubles.
In 1935, Ida Adamova married French writer and publicist Claude Burde. They would have three children – two sons and a daughter. Adamova completed her sports career in the late 1930s but did not leave the sport. It is known that she worked as a coach for some time.
Ida Adamiants-Adamova passed away in 1993 at the age of 82 years. She is buried at Passy cemetery in Paris.
