The Australian Open, the first of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments during the year, opened at Melbourne Park on January 19, 2009.
The Australian Open reached its climax on February 1 with the men's singles championship match. The women's singles final was held on January 31.
Rafael Nadal (Spain) won the men's singles title and Serena Williams (US) took out the women's singles title.
- 2008 Women's Singles Finalist Ivanovic Eliminated
- World No 1 Women's Tennis Player Loses in Straight Sets
- Aussie Comeback Kid Through to Quarter-Final
- Defending Men's Singles Champion Bows out of Competition
- Comeback Kid Loses to No 3 Seed
- Half of Top 10 Players Out of Australian Open
- All-Spanish Nadal-Verdasco Semi-Final
- It's a Williams-Safina Women's Singles Final
- Longest Match Sees Nadal into Men's Singles Final
- Serena Williams Wins Women's Singles Title
- Nadal Wins Men's Singles Title
- The Winners
Sharapova absence
Notable absence from the 2009 Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne was defending champion Maria Sharapova (Russia) who last year defeated Ana Ivanovic (Serbia), 7-5, 6-3.
Ivanovic was seeded fifth at the 2009 Australian Open.
Top seed in the Open's women's singles tennis was Jelena Jankovic of Serbia while the men's singles top seed was Rafael Nadal of Spain.
No Williams-Williams final
For a while there was the fascinating prospect that the 2009 Australian Open could yet see a repeat of the 2008 Wimbledon final where the United States' Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, were pitted against each other in the final.
Venus won that Wimbledon final.
Unfortunately, in the Australian Open, Venus Williams was eliminated from the tournament when she lost to unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) in a three-setter. 6-2, 3-6, 5-7.
The world's Grand Slams
The four Grand Slam tournaments are the Australian Open, French Open at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open. Only one, Australian tennis player Rod Laver, has won the Grand Slam — winning all four tournaments in one year — twice.
