Rjazanova-Ermolova, Irina Evgen'evna, International Tennis Champion

[CtahhR]

You'll all have to bear with me a bit with this enormous group. There are over 150 awards as well as other bits - over half of which are too big for an A4 scanner. The group spans from 1952 to the 1990's and is only partial - as Mrs Ermolova is still alive.

She was a name on the international tennis scene in the late 1950's and early 1960's - becoming the first Georgian woman to play Wimbledon. In her native Georgia she is a tennis legend. She was three (consecutive) times female doubles champion of the Soviet Union (with Anna Vladimirovna Dmitrieva). She even once played Bill Jean King.

Unfortunately due to being Georgian she gets rather overlooked in Russia and due to the fact there are so many ways to transliterate her name it can be very difficult to collect information on her (coupled with the use of both maiden and married names).

In Georgian her maiden name was ირინა ევგენის-ასული რიაზანოვა (Irina Evgenis-asuli Riazanova) and married name ირინა ევგენის-ასული ერმოლოვა (Irina Evgenis-asuli Ermolova). In Russian her maiden name was Ирина Евгеньевна Рязанова (Irina Evgen'evna Rjazanova) and married name Ирина Евгеньевна Ермолова (Irina Evgen'evna Ermolova) but finding information on her from various European sources has brought up the following translations of her first and last names: Irina/Jrina Rjazanova/Ryazanova/Rjasanova/Ryasanova/Rjasanowa/Ryasanowa/Rjazanova/Rjazanowa Ermolova/Jermolova/Yermolova add in the hyphen and you can use some long times searching.

Although there will be film footage of her in action I've yet to locate any (not surprising with the naming issues).

Irina was born on 2nd April 1938 and the first award dates from when she was only 14.

All-Union Committee For Affairs Of Physical Culture And Sport Under The Soviet Of Ministries Of The USSR 1st Place in Youth Mixed Doubles in the All-Union Personal-Team Youth Competition Of Tennis 1952 in Moscow, 19th August 1952 - a national youth champion straight off the bat.