Raquel Atawo (née Kops-Jones; born December 8, 1982) is an American former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player, who is currently the head woman's tennis coach for the

Washington State Cougars The Washington State Cougars (known informally as the Cougs) are the sport, athletic teams that represent Washington State University. Located in Pullman, Washington, WSU is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in NCAA Division I. The athletic pr ...

. 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 The 2014 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 13 and 26 January 2014. It was the 102nd edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament consisted of eve ...

, 2015 Wimbledon Championships and

2016 Wimbledon Championships The 2016 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main draw commenced on 27 June 2016 and concluded on ...

, all alongside her regular partner, fellow American

Abigail Spears Abigail Michal Spears (born July 12, 1981) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Spears won 21 double titles including the 2017 Australian Open. Spears started playing tennis in 1988 when she was 7 years old, and turn ...

. 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.WTAtennis.com biography
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Career

Her best results in doubles at Grand Slam events have been reaching the semifinals at the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

in 2014 and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

in 2015 and 2016, both while partnered with

. 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,

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, and

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. The pair also reached two other finals and the quarterfinals of

Significant finals

Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 tournaments

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

WTA Tour finals

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

Doubles performance timeline

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Atawo, Raquel African-American tennis players American female tennis players Sportspeople from Fresno, California Tennis players from California 1982 births Living people California Golden Bears women's tennis players 21st-century African-American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen