2009 Rafael Nadal Tennis Season

Qatar Open

Nadal's first official ATP tour event for the year was the 250 series Qatar Open in Doha. After his first-round match with Fabrice Santoro, Nadal was awarded the 2008 ATP World Tour Champion trophy. Nadal eventually lost in the quarterfinals to Gaël Monfils. Nadal also entered and won the tournament's doubles event with partner Marc López, defeating the world No. 1 doubles team of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in the final. As noted by statistician Greg Sharko, this was the first time since 1990 the world No. 1 singles player had played the world No. 1 doubles player in a final.

Australian Open

At the 2009 Australian Open, Nadal won his first five matches without dropping a set, before defeating compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals in the second longest match in Australian Open history at 5 hours and 14 minutes. This win set up a championship match with Roger Federer, their first meeting ever in a hard-court Grand Slam tournament and their nineteenth meeting overall. Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to earn his first hard-court Grand Slam singles title, making him the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open and the fourth male tennis player—after Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, and Andre Agassi—to win Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces. This win also made Nadal the first male tennis player to hold three Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces at the same time.

ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament

At the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Nadal lost in the final to second-seeded Andy Murray in three sets. During the final, Nadal called a trainer to attend to a tendon problem with his right knee, which notably affected his play in the final set. Although this knee problem was not associated with Nadal's right knee tendonitis, it was serious enough to cause him to withdraw from the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships a week later.

Davis Cup

In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Serbia in a Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on clay in Benidorm, Spain. Nadal defeated Janko Tipsarević and Novak Djokovic. The win over world No. 3 Djokovic was Nadal's twelfth consecutive Davis Cup singles match win and boosted his career win–loss record against Djokovic to 11–4, including 6–0 on clay.

Indian Wells

At the 2009 Indian Wells Masters, Nadal won his thirteenth Masters 1000 series tournament. In the fourth round, Nadal saved five match points, before defeating David Nalbandian for the first time. Nadal defeated Juan Martín del Potro in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semifinals, before defeating Murray in the final.

Miami

The next ATP tour event was the 2009 Miami Masters. Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals, where he again faced Argentinian del Potro, this time losing the match. This was the first time del Potro had defeated Nadal in five career matches.

Monte Carlo

Nadal began his European clay court season at the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, where he won a record fifth consecutive singles title there. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final for his fifth consecutive win, a record in the open era. Nadal is the first male player to win the same ATP Master series event for five consecutive years.

Barcelona

Nadal then competed in the ATP 500 event in Barcelona. He advanced to his fifth consecutive Barcelona final, where he faced David Ferrer. Nadal went on to beat Ferrer to record five consecutive Barcelona victories.

Rome

At the Rome Masters, Nadal reached the final, where he defeated Novak Djokovic to improve his overall record to 13–4 and clay record to 8–0 against the Serb. He became the first player to win four Rome titles.

After winning two clay-court Masters, he participated in the Madrid Open. He lost to Roger Federer in the final. This was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer since the semifinals of the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup.

On 19 May, the ATP World Tour announced that Nadal was the first player out of eight to qualify for the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, to be played at the O2 Arena in London.

French Open

By beating Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of 2009 French Open, Nadal (2005–09 French Open) set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros, beating the previous record of 28 by Björn Borg (1978–81 French Open). Nadal had won 32 consecutive sets at Roland Garros (since winning the last 2 sets at the 2007 French Open final against Federer), the second-longest winning streak in the tournament's history behind Björn Borg's record of 41 consecutive sets. This run came to an end on 31 May 2009, when Nadal lost to eventual runner-up, Robin Söderling in the 4th round in a massive upset. This was Nadal's first loss at the French Open.

Injury

After his surprise defeat at Roland Garros, Nadal withdrew from the AEGON Championships. It was confirmed that Nadal was suffering from tendinitis in both of his knees. On 19 June, Nadal withdrew from the 2009 Wimbledon Championship, citing his recurring knee injury. He was the first champion not to defend the title since Goran Ivanišević in 2001. Roger Federer went on to win the title, and Nadal consequently dropped back to world No. 2 on 6 July 2009. Nadal later announced his withdrawal from the Davis Cup.

Return

On 4 August, Nadal's uncle, Toni Nadal, confirmed that Nadal would return to play at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. There, in his first tournament since Roland Garros, Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Juan Martín del Potro. With this loss, he relinquished the No. 2 spot to Andy Murray on 17 August 2009, ranking outside the top two for the first time since 25 July 2005.

US Open

In the quarterfinals of the US Open he defeated Fernando González in a rain-delayed encounter. However, like his previous US Open campaign, he fell in the semifinals, this time losing to eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro. Despite the loss, he regained the No. 2 ranking after Andy Murray's early exit.

World Tour Finals

At the World Tour Finals, Nadal lost all three of his matches against Robin Söderling, Nikolay Davydenko, and Novak Djokovic respectively without winning a set.

Davis Cup final

In December, Nadal participated in the second Davis Cup final of his career. He defeated Tomáš Berdych in his first singles rubber to give the Spanish Davis Cup Team their first point in the tie. After the Spanish Davis Cup team had secured its fourth Davis Cup victory, Nadal defeated Jan Hájek in the first Davis Cup dead rubber of his career. The win gave Nadal his 14th consecutive singles victory at Davis Cup (his 13th on clay).

Nadal finished the year as No. 2 for the fourth time in five years.

Singles

Tournament	Match	Round	Opponent (seed or key)	Rank	Result	Score
Qatar ExxonMobil Open Doha, Qatar ATP Tour 250 Hard, outdoor 5 – 11 January 2009
	1 / 413	1R	Fabrice Santoro	51	Win	6–0, 6–1
	2 / 414	2R	Karol Beck (Q)	144	Win	6–1, 6–2
	3 / 415	QF	Gaël Monfils (5/WC)	13	Loss	4–6, 4–6
Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Grand Slam tournament Hard, outdoor 19 January – 1 February 2009
	4 / 416	1R	Christophe Rochus	75	Win	6–0, 6–2, 6–2
	5 / 417	2R	Roko Karanušić	92	Win	6–2, 6–3, 6–2
	6 / 418	3R	Tommy Haas	79	Win	6–4, 6–2, 6–2
	7 / 419	4R	Fernando González (13)	14	Win	6–3, 6–2, 6–4
	8 / 420	QF	Gilles Simon (6)	8	Win	6–2, 7–5, 7–5
	9 / 421	SF	Fernando Verdasco (14)	15	Win	6–7(4–7), 6–4, 7–6(7–2), 6–7(1–7), 6–4
	10 / 422	W	Roger Federer (2)	2	Win (1)	7–5, 3–6, 7–6(7–3), 3–6, 6–2
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament Rotterdam, Netherlands ATP Tour 500 Hard, indoor 9 – 15 February 2009
	11 / 423	1R	Simone Bolelli	37	Win	4–6, 6–2, 7–5
	12 / 424	2R	Grigor Dimitrov (WC)	478	Win	7–5, 3–6, 6–2
	13 / 425	QF	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (7)	13	Win	6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–4
	14 / 426	SF	Gaël Monfils (5)	12	Win	6–4, 6–4
	15 / 427	F	Andy Murray (2)	4	Loss (1)	3–6, 6–4, 0–6
Davis Cup, World Group 1st Round Benidorm, Spain Davis Cup Clay, outdoor 6 – 8 March 2009
	16 / 428	1R R2	Janko Tipsarević	47	Win	6–1, 6–0, 6–2
	17 / 429	1R R4	Novak Djokovic	3	Win	6–4, 6–4, 6–1
BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells, United States ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 9 – 22 March 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	18 / 430	2R	Michael Berrer (Q)	112	Win	6–2, 6–1
	19 / 431	3R	Dmitry Tursunov (26)	27	Win	6–3, 6–3
	20 / 432	4R	David Nalbandian (14)	14	Win	3–6, 7–6(7–5), 6–0
	21 / 433	QF	Juan Martín del Potro (6)	6	Win	6–2, 6–4
	22 / 434	SF	Andy Roddick (7)	7	Win	6–4, 7–6(7–4)
	23 / 435	W	Andy Murray (4)	4	Win (2)	6–1, 6–2
Sony Ericsson Open Miami, United States ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 23 March – 5 April 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	24 / 436	2R	Teymuraz Gabashvili	72	Win	6–2, 6–2
	25 / 437	3R	Frederico Gil (Q)	74	Win	7–5, 6–3
	26 / 438	4R	Stanislas Wawrinka (16)	17	Win	7–6(7–2), 7–6(7–4)
	27 / 439	QF	Juan Martín del Potro (6)	7	Loss	4–6, 6–3, 6–7(3–7)
Monte Carlo Rolex Masters Monte Carlo, Monaco ATP Tour Masters 1000 Clay, outdoor 13 – 19 April 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	28 / 440	2R	Juan Ignacio Chela (PR)	167	Win	6–2, 6–3
	29 / 441	3R	Nicolás Lapentti (Q)	98	Win	6–3, 6–0
	30 / 442	QF	Ivan Ljubičić (WC)	66	Win	6–3, 6–3
	31 / 443	SF	Andy Murray (4)	4	Win	6–2, 7–6(7–4)
	32 / 444	W	Novak Djokovic (3)	3	Win (3)	6–3, 2–6, 6–1
Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell Barcelona, Spain ATP Tour 500 Clay, outdoor 20 – 26 April 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	33 / 445	2R	Frederico Gil (Q)	75	Win	6–2, 6–2
	34 / 446	3R	Christophe Rochus	61	Win	6–2, 6–0
	–	QF	David Nalbandian (7)	15	Walkover	N/A
	35 / 447	SF	Nikolay Davydenko (3)	8	Win	6–3, 6–2
	36 / 448	W	David Ferrer (4)	13	Win (4)	6–2, 7–5
Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome, Italy ATP Tour Masters 1000 Clay, outdoor 27 April – 3 May 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	37 / 449	2R	Andreas Seppi	37	Win	6–2, 6–3
	38 / 450	3R	Robin Söderling	27	Win	6–1, 6–0
	39 / 451	QF	Fernando Verdasco (6)	8	Win	6–3, 6–3
	40 / 452	SF	Fernando González (12)	13	Win	6–3, 6–3
	41 / 453	W	Novak Djokovic (3)	3	Win (5)	7–6(7–2), 6–2
Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open Madrid, Spain ATP Tour Masters 1000 Clay, outdoor 11 – 17 May 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	42 / 454	2R	Jürgen Melzer	27	Win	6–3, 6–1
	–	3R	Philipp Kohlschreiber	35	Walkover	N/A
	43 / 455	QF	Fernando Verdasco (7)	8	Win	6–4, 7–5
	44 / 456	SF	Novak Djokovic (3)	4	Win	3–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–6(11–9)
	45 / 457	F	Roger Federer (2)	2	Loss (2)	4–6, 4–6
French Open Paris, France Grand Slam tournament Clay, outdoor 25 May – 7 June 2009
	46 / 458	1R	Marcos Daniel (Q)	97	Win	7–5, 6–4, 6–3
	47 / 459	2R	Teymuraz Gabashvili	72	Win	6–1, 6–4, 6–2
	48 / 460	3R	Lleyton Hewitt	48	Win	6–1, 6–3, 6–1
	49 / 461	4R	Robin Söderling (23)	25	Loss	2–6, 7–6(7–2), 4–6, 6–7(2–7)
Rogers Cup Montreal, Canada ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 10 – 16 August 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	50 / 462	2R	David Ferrer	19	Win	4–3, retired
	51 / 463	3R	Philipp Petzschner	45	Win	6–3, 6–2
	52 / 464	QF	Juan Martín del Potro (6)	6	Loss	6–7(5–7), 1–6
W&S Financial Group Masters Cincinnati, United States ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 17 – 23 August 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	53 / 465	2R	Andreas Seppi	45	Win	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–3)
	54 / 466	3R	Paul-Henri Mathieu	31	Win	7–5, 6–2
	55 / 467	QF	Tomáš Berdych	18	Win	6–4, 7–5
	56 / 468	SF	Novak Djokovic (4)	4	Loss	1–6, 4–6
US Open New York City, United States Grand Slam tournament Hard, outdoor 31 August – 13 September 2009
	57 / 469	1R	Richard Gasquet	46	Win	6–2, 6–2, 6–3
	58 / 470	2R	Nicolas Kiefer	129	Win	6–0, 3–6, 6–3, 6–4
	59 / 471	3R	Nicolás Almagro (32)	33	Win	7–5, 6–4, 6–4
	60 / 472	4R	Gaël Monfils (13)	13	Win	6–7(3–7), 6–3, 6–1, 6–3
	61 / 473	QF	Fernando González (11)	11	Win	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–2), 6–0
	62 / 474	SF	Juan Martín del Potro (6)	6	Loss	2–6, 2–6, 2–6
China Open Beijing, China ATP Tour 500 Hard, outdoor 5 – 11 October 2009
	63 / 475	1R	Marcos Baghdatis (WC)	90	Win	6–4, 3–6, 6–4
	64 / 476	2R	James Blake	24	Win	7–5, 6–7(4–7), 6–3
	65 / 477	QF	Marat Safin (WC)	59	Win	6–3, 6–1
	66 / 478	SF	Marin Čilić (8/WC)	15	Loss	1–6, 3–6
Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai, China ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 12 – 18 October 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	67 / 479	2R	James Blake	26	Win	6–2, 6–7(4–7), 6–4
	68 / 480	3R	Tommy Robredo (14)	15	Win	6–1, 6–4
	69 / 481	QF	Ivan Ljubičić	37	Win	3–6, 6–3, retired
	70 / 482	SF	Feliciano López	41	Win	6–1, 3–0, retired
	71 / 483	F	Nikolay Davydenko (6)	8	Loss (3)	6–7(3–7), 3–6
BNP Paribas Masters Paris, France ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, indoor 9 – 15 November 2009
	–	1R	Bye
	72 / 484	2R	Nicolás Almagro	27	Win	3–6, 7–6(7–2), 7–5
	73 / 485	3R	Tommy Robredo (14)	15	Win	6–3, 3–6, 7–5
	74 / 486	QF	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (8)	9	Win	7–5, 7–5
	75 / 487	SF	Novak Djokovic (3)	3	Loss	2–6, 3–6
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals London, United Kingdom ATP Finals Hard, indoor 22 – 29 November 2009
	76 / 488	RR	Robin Söderling (8)	9	Loss	4–6, 4–6
	77 / 489	RR	Nikolay Davydenko (6)	7	Loss	1–6, 6–7(4–7)
	78 / 490	RR	Novak Djokovic (3)	3	Loss	6–7(5–7), 3–6
Davis Cup, World Group Final Barcelona, Spain Davis Cup Clay, indoor 4 – 6 December 2009
	79 / 491	W R1	Tomáš Berdych	20	Win	7–5, 6–0, 6–2
	80 / 492	W R4	Jan Hájek	102	Win	6–3, 6–4

Source (ATP)

Exhibition matches

Tournament	Round	Opponent	Result	Score
Capitala World Tennis Championship Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Exhibition tournament Hard, outdoor 1 – 3 January 2009	QF	Bye
	SF	Nikolay Davydenko	Win	6–2, 6–3
	F	Andy Murray	Loss	4–6, 7–5, 3–6
Masters Guinot-Mary Cohr Paris, France Exhibition tournament Clay, outdoor 20 – 22 May 2009	W R4	Arnaud Clément	Win	6–3, 6–3

Doubles

Tournament	Match	Round	Opponents (seed or key)	Ranks	Result	Score
Qatar ExxonMobil Open Doha, Qatar ATP Tour 250 Hard, outdoor 5 – 11 January 2009 Partner:   Marc López
	1 / 115	1R	Óscar Hernández /   Albert Montañés	#136 / #99	Win	6–3, 6–3
	2 / 116	QF	Christopher Kas /   Philipp Kohlschreiber (4)	#29 / #79	Win	6–7(7–9), 6–4, [10–3]
	3 / 117	SF	Fabrice Santoro /   Mikhail Youzhny	#75 / #63	Win	1–6, 7–6(7–2), [11–9]
	4 / 118	W	Daniel Nestor /   Nenad Zimonjić (1)	#2 / #1	Win (1)	4–6, 6–4, [10–8]
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament Rotterdam, Netherlands ATP Tour 500 Hard, indoor 9 – 15 February 2009 Partner:   Ignacio Coll-Riudavets
	5 / 119	1R	Arnaud Clément /   Michaël Llodra	#83 / #39	Loss	3–6, 4–6
BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells, United States ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 9 – 22 March 2009 Partner:   Marc López
	6 / 120	1R	František Čermák /   Michal Mertiňák	#26 / #31	Win	7–6(7–2), 4–6, [10–7]
	7 / 121	2R	Bob Bryan /   Mike Bryan (1)	#1 / #1	Loss	4–6, 3–6
Sony Ericsson Open Miami, United States ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 23 March – 5 April 2009 Partner:   Marc López
	8 / 122	1R	Johan Brunström /   Jean-Julien Rojer (Alt)	#61 / #69	Win	6–2, 7–6(7–5)
	9 / 123	2R	Bruno Soares /   Kevin Ullyett (6)	#20 / #6	Loss	3–6, 4–6
Rogers Cup Montreal, Canada ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, outdoor 10 – 16 August 2009 Partner:   Francisco Roig
	10 / 124	1R	Novak Djokovic /   Dušan Vemić	#140 / #49	Win	7–5, 6–4
	11 / 125	2R	Max Mirnyi /   Andy Ram (7)	#21 / #12	Loss	6–4, 3–6, [8–10]
BNP Paribas Masters Paris, France ATP Tour Masters 1000 Hard, indoor 9 – 15 November 2009 Partner:   Juan Mónaco
	12 / 126	1R	Christopher Kas /   Philipp Kohlschreiber	#39 / #88	Loss	6–4, 5–7, [13–15]

Source (ATP)

• 2009 ATP World Tour
• 2009 Roger Federer tennis season
• 2009 Novak Djokovic tennis season
• 2009 Juan Martín del Potro tennis season