The 2009 Australian Open Men's singles final was the championship tennis match of the Men's singles tournament at the 2009 Australian Open. It was contested between the world's top two players for much of the previous four years, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, then ranked first and second in the world respectively. It was the pair's seventh of nine meetings in a major final, and their first outside of either the French Open or Wimbledon. This was Nadal's first major hard court final, while it was Federer's ninth and at the time he was yet to lose in a major hard court final.
Nadal defeated Federer in five sets after 4 hours and 23 minutes, with the match finishing after midnight, becoming the first Spaniard, male or female, to win the Australian Open. The match was lauded as one of the greatest ever played at the Australian Open, and came seven months after the pair contested the 2008 Wimbledon final, a match widely regarded as one of the greatest-ever.
Match Pascal Maria was the chair umpire for the match. Nadal won the coin toss and elected to begin the match receiving.
First set Federer began the match serving and immediately gifted a break of serve to Nadal with a double fault and three unforced errors. Both men settled in well from there in the next game where Federer went ahead 15–30 after a forehand winner. Nadal fought back to deuce after saving a break point. Federer earned a second break point after three deuces, but did not convert it after a backhand error. Nadal then hit a forehand long to give Federer a third break point. The game lasted for ten minutes before Federer broke Nadal with a forehand winner to level the opening set at 1–1. Federer held serve with another forehand winner to get to 2–1. Nadal held comfortably to reach 2–2. In the fifth game at 30–30, Nadal's forehand was out but the linesman did not call it. Federer challenged and the Hawkeye review showed the ball was long, giving Federer 40–30 instead of break point to Nadal. Federer held at deuce to go ahead 3–2.
At 3–2 on Nadal's serve, Federer got to 30–30 after Nadal unsuccessfully challenged his own forehand that was long by about a millimetre. Federer hit a winner in the next rally to gain another break point. At 30–40, Federer hammered a return winner to break Nadal for the second time and gain a 4–2 lead. In the seventh game, Federer was unable to consolidate the break. Nadal hit a forehand winner to gain a break point opportunity in which Federer double faulted on to hand a second break to Nadal. Back on serve, Federer got to 30–30 the next game but Nadal held after Federer netted his next two returns. The set went to 5–5 where Nadal broke Federer for the third time in the set with a passing shot to go ahead 6–5. Nadal then served it out to win the first set 7–5. The set lasted 57 minutes and saw a wild pace of play with many long rallies. Federer was serving below his normal level which gave Nadal an early advantage.
Second set The second set saw more of the same pace. Nadal relentlessly kept on pummelling Federer's backhand hoping to draw errors. The set remained on serve until 2–2 where Nadal broke Federer to go ahead 3–2. Federer's first serve percentage was down to just 32% at this point. With the serve not working, Federer engaged in aggressive baseline rallies to compete with Nadal, constantly putting him on the defensive. Serving with a 3–2 lead, Nadal doubled faulted for the first time in the match. At 30–30, Nadal committed two errors to give Federer a break and level the set at 3–3. From there, Federer raised his game and held serve.
4–3 saw a long and grueling game as Nadal fell behind 15–40 in his service game. He saved the first break point after a rally and saved the second one with an excellent serve. Federer got the advantage at deuce but Nadal saved the third break point with an ace. Federer fought back to gain a fourth break point that Nadal saved with a drop shot. Federer kept slugging and regained the advantage with a backhand winner during the next rally. He finally broke Nadal on his fifth break point of the game to gain a 5–3 lead. Federer then served out the set to take it 6–3 after winning four games in a row. Federer had gotten himself back into the match from the baseline and won the second set despite having a first serve percentage of just 37%.
Third set In the third set, long rallies continued and both men held serve until 3–2 when Nadal gained the first break point of the set. Federer saved it after a grueling rally and went on to hold serve. At 3–3, Federer had an opening at 15–30 until he made 3 unforced errors to allow Nadal to hold. Federer held his next game relatively well to get to 4–4. Nadal then called for the trainer to massage his right thigh and the match saw a delay. After play resumed, Federer kept up his aggressive play to go ahead 0–40 and gain three break point chances. Two brutal rallies went Nadal's way, and at 30–40, he then caught Federer off guard with a serve to Federer's forehand to get to deuce. Nadal went on to hold with an ace and stay ahead 5–4. Federer held comfortably to get to 5–5 and Nadal once again called for the trainer.
When play resumed, Nadal quickly fell behind again in his service game 15–40. Federer hit a forehand long at 30–40 to keep Nadal in the game and reach deuce. The ball was clearly out but Federer used a strategic Hawkeye challenge on the call in an attempt to rattle Nadal. Nadal then lost the next point at 40–40, which he too strategically challenged to no avail. Federer then gained another break point after the ruling, his sixth break chance in the set. Nadal saved it with a forehand winner and went on to hold and stay ahead 6–5. Nadal fought hard in the next game to break. Federer saved a set point and needed three deuces to finally hold for 6–6. The tiebreak went to 3–3 where Federer shanked a forehand to give Nadal a mini-break. Nadal then hit two winners to go ahead 6–3 and found himself with three set points. Federer double faulted to end the 78-minute set and Nadal went ahead two-sets-to-one.
Fourth set Federer went back to work quickly holding serve to begin the fourth set. A backhand winner from Federer and an error from Nadal set up two break points in the next game. Federer converted with a forehand winner to break Nadal and go ahead 2–0. Nadal then broke back in the third game with two forehand winners at 30–30 to get back into the set. Federer showed an outburst of emotion for allowing this to happen as he fired a ball into the advertising boards. Nadal then held to put the set back on serve. The next game was another grueling affair on Federer's serve. At 2–2, Federer fell behind 15–40 and a big serve got him to 30–40 as Nadal's return went long. At this moment the umpire overruled the call, believing that Nadal's return was good. Federer challenged and the Hawkeye review confirmed the return was long. After a spat with the umpire, Federer saved the next break point with a backhand winner to get the game to deuce.
They battled on in the same game, Federer got the advantage but lost it after another brutal rally. Federer lost another advantage with a double fault. On the third deuce, Nadal regained a break point with a forehand. Federer tried to save it with a drop shot but Nadal got to it, yet he hit the ball wide to keep Federer in the game. Another rally at deuce ended with a fourth break chance for Nadal. Federer saved it with an ace, and then further saved a fifth break point with a forehand winner. After the seventh deuce Federer held serve to survive the game. At 3–2, Federer broke Nadal again to regain his break lead. He went ahead 5–2 after holding and Nadal then held to stay in the set. At 5–3 with Federer serving for the set at 15-all, a Federer ball was called out and Nadal appeared to have an opening. A Federer challenge saw the ball barely catch the line, giving Federer 30–15 instead of 15–30. He went on the hold from there and claimed the fourth set 6–3.
Fifth set Nadal served to open the fifth set with a hold. Federer held to get to 1–1, but showed signs of exhaustion as Nadal held easily to go ahead 2–1. From there, Nadal broke after two Federer backhand errors at 30–30 and gained a 3–1 lead. After Nadal's relentless onslaught on Federer's backhand for the better part of four hours, it finally broke down as the clock struck midnight in Melbourne. Serving at 3–1, Nadal raced ahead to a 40–0 lead. Federer fought back to 40–30 but Nadal got the hold to stay ahead 4–1. Federer then held at love to get back to 4–2. Federer lost the next game with another backhand error and Nadal lead 5–2.
Federer served to stay in the match, but committed a double fault at 0–15 to put Nadal two points away from victory. At 15–40, Federer saved a championship point with a good serve. At 30–40, Federer saved the second one after a long rally ended with a Nadal error. At deuce, a long rally saw Nadal create a third championship point with a backhand winner. One last rally ensued that saw Federer run around his backhand three times to hit a forehand. The contest finally came to an end as Federer's final forehand barely went long. The match ended at 12:14 AM as Nadal fell to the court in disbelief that he had won the Australian Open.
Statistics
The match statistics followed a similar pattern to those at the 2008 Wimbledon final, with Federer having a lower first serve percentage against Nadal (51% compared to 64%) and again he was not as clinical on break point opportunities with only 31% break points converted for Federer whereas Nadal converted 43% of his break points. However, the total points by each player proved even closer than that at the aforementioned Wimbledon final, as Federer won one more point than Nadal (174 to 173) yet still lost this final.
Category Federer Nadal 1st serve % 89 of 172 = 51% 112 of 175 = 64% 1st serve points won65 of 89 = 73% 74 of 112 = 66% 2nd serve points won 38 of 83 = 45%30 of 63 = 47% Total service points won103 of 172 = 60% 104 of 175 = 59% Aces114 Double faults 64 Winners7150 Unforced errors 64 41 Winners-UFE +7 +9 Net approaches 43 of 60 = 72% 15 of 26 = 58% Break point conversions 6 of 19 = 31% 7 of 16 = 43% Receiving points won 71 of 175 = 41% 69 of 172 = 40% Total points won 174 173
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Significance It was a match of great significance for Federer, who had the opportunity to equal the all-time record of Grand Slams won, which at the time was fourteen (set by Pete Sampras). Federer simultaneously could have equaled the then Open Era record for the most Australian Open titles at four each with Andre Agassi (the record has since been broken by Novak Djokovic with ten Australian Open titles). Further, Federer had entered the match with an 8–0 record in hard court Grand Slam finals. The loss saw Federer fall short of equaling both as his undefeated record in hard court Major finals came to an end. The loss further brought about immediate doubt by some analysts who believed that Federer might never equal Sampras' record. This was Federer's first and only Australian Open final loss in his career (6–1 overall record). However, Federer would go on to equal both of the records within the following twelve months after the loss. Federer came back the next year and reclaimed the Australian Open title, winning his sixteenth major and fourth title in Australia.