Raquel Atawo

Raquel Atawo (née Kops-Jones; born December 8, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player, who is currently the head women's tennis coach for the Washington State Cougars.

She is primarily a doubles specialist, winning 18 WTA doubles titles, including two Premier-5 titles at the 2012 Toray Pan Pacific Open and the 2014 Cincinnati Masters, and reaching the semifinals of the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 Wimbledon Championships and 2016 Wimbledon Championships, all alongside her regular partner, fellow American Abigail Spears.

Before serving as the head coach at Washington State, Atawo was an assistant women's tennis coach for Auburn University and a volunteer coach for University of California women's tennis.

Biography

Raquel's mother is Nancy Kops, and her father was Lawrence Jones. She has two sisters, Renee and Khristy. She married Toby Atawo on July 18, 2015.

Career

Her best results in doubles at Grand Slam events have been reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open in 2014 and Wimbledon in 2015 and 2016, both while partnered with Abigail Spears. Kops-Jones has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 10, achieved on March 2, 2015. She won 18 WTA doubles titles.

In 2008, she played for the Boston Lobsters, and in 2019, played for the Philadelphia Freedoms—both teams in the World TeamTennis Pro League.

2012

Kops-Jones and compatriot Abigail Spears were one of the most successful doubles teams of the 2012 season, winning four titles, at Carlsbad, Seoul, Tokyo, and Osaka. The pair also reached two other finals and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.

Significant finals

Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 tournaments

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	2012	Qatar Open	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	United States Liezel Huber United States Lisa Raymond	3–6, 1–6
Win	2012	Tokyo Open	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Germany Anna-Lena Grönefeld Czech Republic Květa Peschke	6–1, 6–4
Win	2014	Cincinnati Open	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Hungary Tímea Babos France Kristina Mladenovic	6–1, 2–0 ret.

WTA Tour finals

Doubles: 26 (18 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Winner — Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
Tier I / Premier M & Premier 5 (2–1)
Tier II / Premier (9–4)
Tier III, IV & V / International (7–3)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	Nov 2007	Bell Challenge, Quebec City	Hard	United States Christina Fusano	Canada Stéphanie Dubois Czech Republic Renata Voráčová	6–3, 7–6(8–6)
Win	2.	May 2009	Estoril Open, Portugal	Clay	United States Abigail Spears	Canada Sharon Fichman Hungary Katalin Marosi	2–6, 6–3, [10–5]
Win	3.	May 2009	Warsaw Open, Poland	Clay	United States Bethanie Mattek-Sands	China Yan Zi China Zheng Jie	6–1, 6–1
Loss	1.	Jun 2009	Birmingham Classic, UK	Grass	United States Abigail Spears	Zimbabwe Cara Black United States Liezel Huber	1–6, 4–6
Loss	2.	Aug 2011	San Diego Open, United States	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Czech Republic Květa Peschke Slovenia Katarina Srebotnik	0–6, 2–6
Win	4.	Sep 2011	Bell Challenge, Canada (2)	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	United States Jamie Hampton Georgia (country) Anna Tatishvili	6–0, 3–6, [10–6]
Loss	3.	Jan 2012	Brisbane International, Australia	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Spain Nuria Llagostera Vives Spain Arantxa Parra Santonja	6–7(2–7), 6–7(2–7)
Loss	4.	Feb 2012	Qatar Ladies Open, Doha	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	United States Liezel Huber United States Lisa Raymond	3–6, 1–6
Win	5.	Jul 2012	San Diego Open, US	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	United States Vania King Russia Nadia Petrova	6–2, 6–4
Win	6.	Sep 2012	Korea Open, Seoul	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Uzbekistan Akgul Amanmuradova United States Vania King	2–6, 6–2, [10–8]
Win	7.	Sep 2012	Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Germany Anna-Lena Grönefeld Czech Republic Květa Peschke	6–1, 6–4
Win	8.	Oct 2012	Osaka Open, Japan	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Japan Kimiko Date-Krumm United Kingdom Heather Watson	6–1, 6–4
Win	9.	Jul 2013	Stanford Classic, US	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Germany Julia Görges Croatia Darija Jurak	6–2, 7–6(7–4)
Win	10.	Aug 2013	San Diego Open, US (2)	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Chinese Taipei Chan Hao-ching Slovakia Janette Husárová	6–4, 6–1
Loss	5.	Sep 2013	Korea Open, South Korea	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Chinese Taipei Chan Chin-wei China Xu Yifan	5–7, 3–6
Loss	6.	Feb 2014	Dubai Tennis Championships, U.A.E.	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Russia Alla Kudryavtseva Australia Anastasia Rodionova	2–6, 7–5, [8–10]
Win	11.	Jun 2014	Birmingham Classic, UK	Grass	United States Abigail Spears	Australia Ashleigh Barty Australia Casey Dellacqua	7–6(7–1), 6–1
Win	12.	Aug 2014	Cincinnati Open, US	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Hungary Tímea Babos France Kristina Mladenovic	6–1, 2–0 ret.
Loss	7.	Jan 2015	Sydney International, Australia	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	United States Bethanie Mattek-Sands India Sania Mirza	3–6, 3–6
Win	13.	Feb 2015	Qatar Ladies Open, Doha	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Chinese Taipei Hsieh Su-wei India Sania Mirza	6–4, 6–4
Win	14.	Jun 2015	Nottingham Open, UK	Grass	United States Abigail Spears	United Kingdom Jocelyn Rae United Kingdom Anna Smith	3–6, 6–3, [11–9]
Win	15.	Oct 2015	Ladies Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	United States Abigail Spears	Czech Republic Andrea Hlaváčková Czech Republic Lucie Hradecká	6–3, 7–5
Win	16.	Jul 2016	Stanford Classic, US (2)	Hard	United States Abigail Spears	Croatia Darija Jurak Australia Anastasia Rodionova	6–3, 6–4
Win	17.	Apr 2017	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart	Clay (i)	Latvia Jeļena Ostapenko	United States Abigail Spears Slovenia Katarina Srebotnik	6–4, 6–4
Win	18.	Apr 2018	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart (2)	Clay (i)	Germany Anna-Lena Grönefeld	United States Nicole Melichar Czech Republic Květa Peschke	6–4, 6–7(5–7), [10–5]
Loss	8.	Oct 2018	Linz Open, Austria (2)	Hard (i)	Germany Anna-Lena Grönefeld	Belgium Kirsten Flipkens Sweden Johanna Larsson	6–4, 4–6, [5–10]

Doubles performance timeline

Key
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	P#	DNQ	A	Z#	PO	G	S	B	NMS	NTI	P	NH

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	SR	W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	3R	1R	2R	SF	QF	2R	QF	3R	QF	0 / 11	21–11
French Open	A	A	A	A	A	3R	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	2R	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	0 / 12	7–12
Wimbledon	A	A	A	A	1R	3R	1R	1R	2R	QF	3R	3R	SF	SF	1R	2R	2R	0 / 13	20–13
US Open	1R	1R	A	A	A	QF	1R	1R	1R	3R	2R	1R	3R	1R	2R	3R	1R	0 / 14	11–14
Win–loss	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	7–3	1–4	1–4	3–4	6–4	4–4	7–4	9–4	6–4	4–4	6–4	5–4	0 / 50	59–50
Premier Mandatory tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	2R	2R	1R	1R	2R	1R	QF	1R	2R	2R	0 / 12	9–12
Miami	A	A	A	A	A	A	QF	1R	1R	1R	1R	SF	1R	A	2R	QF	1R	0 / 10	8–10
Madrid	Not Held	1R	1R	1R	1R	QF	QF	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R	0 / 11	4–11
Beijing	NH	Tier II	2R	A	QF	QF	QF	QF	1R	1R	1R	2R	A	0 / 9	9–9
Premier 5 tournaments
Dubai	Tier II	2R	1R	1R	Premier	1R	P	1R	P	1R	0 / 6	0–6
Doha	T III	Tier II	A	Not Held	P	F	SF	2R	P	2R	P	1R	P	0 / 5	8–5
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R	QF	A	SF	1R	0 / 9	5–9
Montreal/Toronto	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	QF	QF	2R	2R	2R	1R	A	0 / 8	9–8
Cincinnati	NH	Tier III	A	1R	1R	2R	1R	W	2R	QF	2R	1R	1R	1 / 10	10–9
Tokyo	A	A	A	A	A	A	QF	A	QF	W	1R	Premier	1 / 4	6–3
Wuhan	Not Held	SF	QF	QF	2R	1R	A	0 / 5	7–5
Career statistics
Tournaments played	2	1	ITF only	6	9	23	25	26	25	24	22	25	24	23	23	19
Titles	0	0	1	0	2	0	1	4	2	2	3	1	1	1	0	18
Finals reached	0	0	1	0	3	0	2	6	3	3	4	1	1	2	0	26
Overall win–loss	0–2	0–1	5–5	10–9	21–21	12–25	25–25	42–21	27–22	38–20	33–23	30–23	19–21	23–22	13–18	298–258
Year-end ranking	620	677	312	152	93	55	36	63	37	13	23	12	18	21	34	26	57

External links

at the Women's Tennis Association
at the International Tennis Federation