Raquel Atawo

Raquel Atawo
Current position
Title	Head Coach
Team	Washington State Cougars
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2017–2018	UC Davis Aggies (volunteer assistant)
2019–2020	California Golden Bears (volunteer assistant)
2020	Auburn Tigers (assistant)
2021–present	Washington State Cougars

Raquel Atawo
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Fresno, California
Born	December 8, 1982 (age 42); Fresno
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Turned pro	2000
Retired	2019
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,345,304
Singles
Career record	144–138
Career titles	0 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 162 (October 8, 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	Q2 (2007)
French Open	Q2 (2007)
Wimbledon	Q1 (2007, 2008)
US Open	Q3 (2007)
Doubles
Career record	457–327
Career titles	18 WTA, 18 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 10 (March 2, 2015)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	SF (2014)
French Open	3R (2008)
Wimbledon	SF (2015, 2016)
US Open	QF (2008)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2010)
French Open	3R (2014)
Wimbledon	2R (2013, 2014, 2016, 2019)
US Open	QF (2019)
Title
Current position
Title	Head Coach
Team	Washington State Cougars
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2017–2018	UC Davis Aggies (volunteer assistant)
2019–2020	California Golden Bears (volunteer assistant)
2020	Auburn Tigers (assistant)
2021–present	Washington State Cougars

Raquel Atawo (née Kops-Jones; born December 8, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player, who is currently the head woman'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^[1] and a volunteer coach for University of California women's tennis.^[2]

Biography

Raquel's mother is Nancy Kops, and her father is Lawrence Jones. She has two sisters, Renee and Khristy. She married Toby Atawo on July 18, 2015.^[3]

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)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	2012	Qatar Open	Hard	Abigail Spears	Liezel Huber Lisa Raymond	3–6, 1–6
Winner	2012	Tokyo Open	Hard	Abigail Spears	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Květa Peschke	6–1, 6–4
Winner	2014	Cincinnati Open	Hard	Abigail Spears	Tímea Babos 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	Christina Fusano	Stéphanie Dubois Renata Voráčová	6–3, 7–6^(8–6)
Win	2.	May 2009	Estoril Open, Portugal	Clay	Abigail Spears	Sharon Fichman Katalin Marosi	2–6, 6–3, [10–5]
Win	3.	May 2009	Warsaw Open, Poland	Clay	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6–1, 6–1
Loss	1.	Jun 2009	Birmingham Classic, UK	Grass	Abigail Spears	Cara Black Liezel Huber	1–6, 4–6
Loss	2.	Aug 2011	San Diego Open, United States	Hard	Abigail Spears	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	0–6, 2–6
Win	4.	Sep 2011	Bell Challenge, Canada (2)	Hard	Abigail Spears	Jamie Hampton Anna Tatishvili	6–0, 3–6, [10–6]
Loss	3.	Jan 2012	Brisbane International, Australia	Hard	Abigail Spears	Nuria Llagostera Vives Arantxa Parra Santonja	6–7^(2–7), 6–7^(2–7)
Loss	4.	Feb 2012	Qatar Ladies Open, Doha	Hard	Abigail Spears	Liezel Huber Lisa Raymond	3–6, 1–6
Win	5.	Jul 2012	San Diego Open, US	Hard	Abigail Spears	Vania King Nadia Petrova	6–2, 6–4
Win	6.	Sep 2012	Korea Open, Seoul	Hard	Abigail Spears	Akgul Amanmuradova Vania King	2–6, 6–2, [10–8]
Win	7.	Sep 2012	Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo	Hard	Abigail Spears	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Květa Peschke	6–1, 6–4
Win	8.	Oct 2012	Osaka Open, Japan	Hard	Abigail Spears	Kimiko Date-Krumm Heather Watson	6–1, 6–4
Win	9.	Jul 2013	Stanford Classic, US	Hard	Abigail Spears	Julia Görges Darija Jurak	6–2, 7–6^(7–4)
Win	10.	Aug 2013	San Diego Open, US (2)	Hard	Abigail Spears	Chan Hao-ching Janette Husárová	6–4, 6–1
Loss	5.	Sep 2013	Korea Open, South Korea	Hard	Abigail Spears	Chan Chin-wei Xu Yifan	5–7, 3–6
Loss	6.	Feb 2014	Dubai Tennis Championships, U.A.E.	Hard	Abigail Spears	Alla Kudryavtseva Anastasia Rodionova	2–6, 7–5, [8–10]
Win	11.	Jun 2014	Birmingham Classic, UK	Grass	Abigail Spears	Ashleigh Barty Casey Dellacqua	7–6^(7–1), 6–1
Win	12.	Aug 2014	Cincinnati Open, US	Hard	Abigail Spears	Tímea Babos Kristina Mladenovic	6–1, 2–0 ret.
Loss	7.	Jan 2015	Sydney International, Australia	Hard	Abigail Spears	Bethanie Mattek-Sands Sania Mirza	3–6, 3–6
Win	13.	Feb 2015	Qatar Ladies Open, Doha	Hard	Abigail Spears	Hsieh Su-wei Sania Mirza	6–4, 6–4
Win	14.	Jun 2015	Nottingham Open, UK	Grass	Abigail Spears	Jocelyn Rae Anna Smith	3–6, 6–3, [11–9]
Win	15.	Oct 2015	Ladies Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Abigail Spears	Andrea Hlaváčková Lucie Hradecká	6–3, 7–5
Win	16.	Jul 2016	Stanford Classic, US (2)	Hard	Abigail Spears	Darija Jurak Anastasia Rodionova	6–3, 6–4
Win	17.	Apr 2017	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart	Clay (i)	Jeļena Ostapenko	Abigail Spears Katarina Srebotnik	6–4, 6–4
Win	18.	Apr 2018	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart (2)	Clay (i)	Anna-Lena Grönefeld	Nicole Melichar Květa Peschke	6–4, 6–7^(5–7), [10–5]
Loss	8.	Oct 2018	Linz Open, Austria (2)	Hard (i)	Anna-Lena Grönefeld	Kirsten Flipkens 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

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

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

References

^ "Raquel Atawo named Auburn women's tennis assistant coach". Auburn University Athletics. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
^ Staff, Spencer Golanka | Senior (September 13, 2019). "Former Bear Raquel Atawo joins women's tennis coaching staff". The Daily Californian. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
^ WTAtennis.com biography

External links

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

[1] "Raquel Atawo named Auburn women's tennis assistant coach". Auburn University Athletics. Retrieved May 13, 2021.

[2] Staff, Spencer Golanka | Senior (September 13, 2019). "Former Bear Raquel Atawo joins women's tennis coaching staff". The Daily Californian. Retrieved May 13, 2021.

[3] WTAtennis.com biography

[1]