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 turned professional in 2000. She reached the third round at the 2005 Australian Open and the first round at the 2005 French Open, 2005 Wimbledon tournament (where she also reached the third round in the doubles tournament with Lisa McShea), and the 2005 US Open. She reached the third round at the 2008 Wimbledon doubles tournament with Raquel Kops-Jones, and the duo bettered that result by reaching the quarterfinals at the 2008 US Open.

Spears also qualified in singles for the US Open twice. She achieved a singles ranking of world No. 66 on June 6, 2005. Her highest doubles ranking was world No. 11 on June 24, 2013. Spears has not won a WTA singles title, but as of the end of December 2018 she has won 21 WTA doubles titles. At the Australian Open, she partnered with Juan Sebastián Cabal to win the mixed-doubles tournament. In the final, they defeated the second-seeded team of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig in straight sets. The American-Colombian duo recovered from a 1–4 deficit in the second set to reel off five straight games to clinch the title. It was a revenge match for Spears, having lost to Mirza the last time she made it to a Grand Slam final losing 9–11 in the super tiebreak to Mirza and Bruno Soares at the 2014 US Open.

Retirement Spears was suspended for 22 months doping offences from 7 November 2019 until 6 September 2021. She retired from the pro tour on 16 September 2021.

In 2023, Spears played at the Peak Tennis Pro Am charity event in Missoula, Montana along with others such as Mats Wilander. In April 2024, Spears played at annual Gootter-Jensen charity event in Tucson along with Kim Clijsters and others.

Personal life Aside from tennis, Spears enjoys watching movies and going to the beach to surf or play beach volleyball. Her idols were Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.

Significant finals Grand Slam finals Mixed doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2013 US Open Hard Santiago González Andrea Hlaváčková Max Mirnyi 6–7(5–7), 3–6Loss 2014 US Open Hard Santiago González Sania Mirza Bruno Soares 1–6, 6–2, [9–11]Win 2017 Australian Open Hard Juan Sebastián Cabal Sania Mirza Ivan Dodig 6–2, 6–4

Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 finals Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

WTA career finals Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) Winner — LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)Tour Championships (0–0)Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)Tier II / Premier (0–0) Tier III, IV & V / International (0–1) ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1. Nov 2004 Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Canada Hard Martina Suchá 5–7, 6–3, 2–6

Doubles: 31 (21 titles, 10 runner-ups) Winner — LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)Tour Championships (0–0)Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (2–1)Tier II / Premier (8–5)Tier III, IV & V / International (11–4)

ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1. Jan 2003 Auckland Open, New Zealand Hard Teryn Ashley Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva 6–2, 2–6, 6–0Win 2. Aug 2004 Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, Canada Hard Bethanie Mattek Els Callens Anna-Lena Grönefeld 6–3, 6–3Loss 1. Feb 2005 Cellular South Cup, United States Hard Laura Granville Yuka Yoshida Miho Saeki 3–6, 4–6Win 3. Jul 2005 Western & Southern Women's Open, United States Hard Laura Granville Květa Peschke María Emilia Salerni 3–6, 6–2, 6–4Win 4. May 2009 Estoril Open, Portugal Clay Raquel Kops-Jones Sharon Fichman Katalin Marosi 2–6, 6–3, [10–5]Loss 2. Jun 2009 Aegon Classic, Birmingham, Great Britain Grass Raquel Kops-Jones Cara Black Liezel Huber 1–6, 4–6Win 5. Sep 2009 Hansol Korea Open, Seoul, South Korea Hard Chan Yung-jan Carly Gullickson Nicole Kriz 6–3, 6–4Loss 3. Oct 2009 HP Open, Osaka, Japan Hard Chanelle Scheepers Lisa Raymond Chuang Chia-jung 2–6, 4–6Loss 4. Aug 2011 Mercury Insurance Open, San Diego, United States Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik 0–6, 2–6Win 6. Sep 2011 Bell Challenge, Quebec City Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Jamie Hampton Anna Tatishvili 6–0, 3–6, [10–6]Loss 5. Jan 2012 Brisbane International, Australia Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Nuria Llagostera Vives Arantxa Parra Santonja 6–7(2–7), 6–7(2–7)Loss 6. Feb 2012 Qatar Ladies Open, Doha Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Liezel Huber Lisa Raymond 3–6, 1–6Win 7. Jul 2012 Mercury Insurance Open, Carlsbad, United States Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Vania King Nadia Petrova 6–2, 6–4Win 8. Sep 2012 Hansol Korea Open, Seoul Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Akgul Amanmuradova Vania King 2–6, 6–2, [10–8]Win 9. Sep 2012 Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Anna-Lena Grönefeld Květa Peschke 6–1, 6–4Win 10. Oct 2012 HP Open, Osaka Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Kimiko Date-Krumm Heather Watson 6–1, 6–4Win 11. Jul 2013 Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, United States Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Julia Görges Darija Jurak 6–2, 7–6(7–4)Win 12. Aug 2013 Southern California Open, Carlsbad, United States Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Chan Hao-ching Janette Husárová 6–4, 6–1Loss 7. Sep 2013 KDB Korea Open, Seoul Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Chan Chin-wei Xu Yifan 5–7, 3–6Loss 8. Feb 2014 Dubai Tennis Championships, United Arab Emirates Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Alla Kudryavtseva Anastasia Rodionova 2–6, 7–5, [8–10]Win 13. Jun 2014 Aegon Classic, Birmingham Grass Raquel Kops-Jones Ashleigh Barty Casey Dellacqua 7–6(7–1), 6–1Win 14. Aug 2014 Cincinnati Masters, United States Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Tímea Babos Kristina Mladenovic 6–1, 2–0 ret.Loss 9. Jan 2015 Apia International Sydney, Australia Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Bethanie Mattek-Sands Sania Mirza 3–6, 3–6Win 15. Feb 2015 Qatar Total Open, Doha Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Hsieh Su-wei Sania Mirza 6–4, 6–4Win 16. Jun 2015 Aegon Nottingham Open, Great Britain Grass Raquel Kops-Jones Jocelyn Rae Anna Smith 3–6, 6–3, [11–9]Win 17. Oct 2015 Generali Ladies Linz, Austria Hard Raquel Kops-Jones Andrea Hlaváčková Lucie Hradecká 6–3, 7–5Win 18. Jul 2016 Bank of the West Classic, Stanford Hard Raquel Atawo Darija Jurak Anastasia Rodionova 6–3, 6–4Win 19. Feb 2017 Qatar Total Open, Doha Hard Katarina Srebotnik Olga Savchuk Yaroslava Shvedova 6–3, 7–6(9–7)Loss 10. Apr 2017 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany Clay (i) Katarina Srebotnik Raquel Atawo Jeļena Ostapenko 4–6, 4–6Win 20. Aug 2017 Bank of the West Classic, Stanford Hard CoCo Vandeweghe Alizé Cornet Alicja Rosolska 6–2, 6–3Win 21. Jun 2018 Nottingham Open, Great Britain Grass Alicja Rosolska Mihaela Buzărnescu Heather Watson 6–3, 7–6(7–5)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles