Adam Baworowski

He was the son of Count Rudolf Baworow-Baworowski (1865-1931) and Austrian Countess Maria Chorinsky von Ledske (1876-1963), the former who was the Chamberlain of Franz Joseph I of Austria and had estates in Lviv and where Adam often spent his childhood years.

He had three brothers and three sisters, Emil, Stefan, Rudolf, Matylda, Marya and Franciszka.

He went to school in Vienna and as the family spoke German at home Adam was alienated from his Polish roots in the beginning.

He started playing tennis at a very early age and started taking coaching lessons from the Van Dycków brothers.

He attended the tennis club at the Prater where he had a chance to meet Georg von Metaxa, his later Davis Cup teammate and friend.

Count Adam Baworowski (9 August 1913 – 1943) was an Austrian-Polish tennis player.

Count Adam Baworowski descended from the Polish noble family Baworowski.

In 1927 he had a victory over Henner Henkel at the Youth Games.

In 1929 at the age of 13 he already defeated then-Polish champion Maximilian Stolarow.

In 1931, he won the Austrian junior tennis championships as well as the international junior championships of Berlin in singles and doubles.

He was ranked tenth on the Austrian rankings.

The next year he was classified fifth.

He was first drafted into the Austrian Davis Cup troupe in 1933 only for the doubles rubber teaming with Herbert Kinzl with whom he reached the doubles finals of the Sheffield tournament later that year.

He twice won the International Polish Championship of Warsaw in the doubles partnering Pat Hughes in 1933 and Hans Redl in 1937.

At Wimbledon, he lost his initial match on three occasions (1933, 1936, 1939).

While in 1934 he climbed to number four on the same list.

In 1935 he won the national singles and doubles championships and drew attention with back to back straight victories against famed players Franz Wilhelm Matejka and Hermann Artens to be crowned champion.

Subsequently, he rose to the second place after Matejka.

Later he became member of the Wiener Park Club.

He was twice finalist in Budapest in 1935 and 1937.

He played again in the Cup in 1936 along with Georg von Metaxa and reached the semifinals of the European zone.

He won the Austrian Championships in the same year.

In 1936 he won the Capri tournament meeting Jacques Jamain in the championship match.

He also won the mixed doubles with Toto Zehden.

In 1937 he still held the second spot on the Austrian rankings next to von Metaxa.

In January 1937 he lost the doubles final in Saint Moritz, playing with von Metaxa, to Frenchmen Christian Boussus and Paul Féret.

In March he lost the Nice title to Kho Sin-Kie in straight sets.

At the same tournament he reached the double final as well with von Metaxa.

In April he clinched the Monegasque Championships by beating Marcel Bernard in a five set match.

He also took the doubles title with von Metaxa defeating Daniel Prenn and Vladimir Landau.

At the French Championships, Baworowski reached the fourth round in 1937 and 1938.

In March 1938 he was victorious at the Cannes L.T.C. tournament where he eliminated Swedish champion Karl Schroeder.

Schroeder took revenge in the doubles final where he teamed up with seasoned player Jacques Brugnon of the Four Musketeers to stop the Baworowski-von Metaxa duo in a five set match.

After the "Anschluss", the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, in March 1938, Baworowski decided to join the Polish Davis Cup team as he didn't want to lose his family's estates in Poland.

Upon arrival in Poland he gave a few interviews, condemning the "Anschluss" and the policy of the Nazi authorities.

His statements were widely covered in the Western media.

He joined the Legia Warsaw and on 3 May 1938 he participated in a friendly match between Poland and Germany, and a few days later played in a match in a Legia Warsaw-Stockholm meeting.

He quickly moved up to second place on the list of Polish Tennis Association right behind Ignacy Tłoczyński.

He was victorious again in the doubles at the Katowice tournament partnering Tłoczyński and the duo represented Poland in the Central European Cup and claimed the trophy after beating Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

The last peaceful season in 1939 kicked off well for him.