2009 Australian Open

The 2009 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 97th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 19 January through 1 February 2009. The 2009 men's tournament is considered to be one of the best Grand Slam tournaments in open era history. It is remembered for containing many of the best matches of the 2009 year, including the Nadal v Verdasco semi final and the Nadal v Federer final. It was the first hard court Grand Slam in which Nadal made the final or won.

Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova were the defending champions. Djokovic was forced to retire in his quarter-final match against Andy Roddick due to heat stress, ending his title defence, whilst Sharapova chose not to defend her title due to long lasting shoulder surgery; the withdrawal subsequently dropped her out of the WTA's Top 10 for the first time since July 2004.

Second seeded Serena Williams regained the women's singles title and recorded her fourth Australian Open title and tenth Grand Slam title overall after defeating third seed Dinara Safina 6–0, 6–3. Serena, partnering her sister Venus, also won the women's doubles tournament.

First seeded Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer 7–5, 3–6, 7–6, 3–6, 6–2 to win the men's singles title. This was Nadal's first hard court grand slam title, having previously only won on clay at Roland Garros four times and grass at Wimbledon once. He also became the first Spaniard to ever win the Australian Open. This tournament featured 23 five-set men's singles matches, the most since 1988. In men's doubles, another sibling pair took the title as Bob and Mike Bryan defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.