Kea Bouman

Cornelia "Kea" Tiedemann-Bouman (23 November 1903 – 17 November 1998) was a tennis player from the Netherlands. She won the singles title at the 1927 French Championships, beating Irene Bowder Peacock of South Africa in the final. Bouman was the first and, to this date, the only Dutch woman who has won a Grand Slam singles title.

Bouman additionally won the 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1926 Dutch national tennis championship (singles).

Born in Almelo, Bouman is also the first female Dutch athlete to win an Olympic medal in any sport, when she teamed with Hendrik Timmer to win bronze in mixed doubles at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.

In October 1927 Bouman won the singles title of the inaugural edition of the Pacific Southwest Tennis Championship, defeating Molla Mallory in the final in three sets. In 1929, Bouman teamed with Spain's Lilí Álvarez to win the women's doubles title at the French Championships, precursor of the French Open.

According to A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Bouman was ranked in the world top 10 in 1927 and 1928, reaching a career high of world no. 8 in those rankings in 1928.

Bouman was successful in other sports as well. She became the Dutch national champion in golf and played for the national field hockey team.

On 27 January 1931 she married Ir. Wilhelm Tiedemann in Almelo, and shortly afterwards the couple emigrated to Dutch East Indies where they lived for nine years and where Tiedemann worked as a geologist. She also lived in the United States.

Bouman died in Delden, Netherlands, four days after her doubles partner Henk Timmer.

¹Through 1923, the French Championships were open only to French nationals. The World Hard Court Championships (WHCC), actually played on clay in Paris or Brussels, began in 1912 and were open to all nationalities. The results from the 1923 edition of that tournament are shown here. The Olympics replaced the WHCC in 1924, as the Olympics were held in Paris. Beginning in 1925, the French Championships were open to all nationalities, with the results shown here beginning with that year.