Except for Andy Roddick, all the top ranked male tennis players participated. World No. 2 Roger Federer had initially decided not to participate in this tournament but changed his mind and accepted a wild-card invitation to play.[3] World No. 1 and first-seeded Rafael Nadal achieved a record fifth straight singles title at the event (the first to win five consecutives titles in any Masters tournament).
The 2009 Monte Carlo Masters tournament was the only one of the nine "Masters 1000" events scheduled for that year without a mandatory player commitment.[4] In 2007, the Association of Tennis Professionals had decided to make participation in the eight newly rebranded "Masters 1000" compulsory for all top players. The tournaments in Monte Carlo and Hamburg were originally due to be removed from the top tier of events; however, the tournament directors filed lawsuits,[5] and Monte Carlo was allowed to remain a top tier event while Hamburg became a 500 Series event.
The Monte Carlo Masters has been held since 1897, firstly as a tournament for amateur players until it became a professional tournament from 1969 onwards with the start of the Open Era. Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the defending champion from 2008, has been the most successful player of the Open Era, winning the previous four titles at the event. Since 1969, Ilie Năstase, Björn Borg, Mats Wilander, Thomas Muster, Gustavo Kuerten and Juan Carlos Ferrero have all won multiple titles. Players such as Reginald Doherty, Laurence Doherty, Anthony Wilding and Gordon Lowe also managed to win a number of titles during the early 20th Century. Nadal was bidding to become the first player to win five successive titles in Monte Carlo.[6]
Tournament details
The singles competition had a 56 player draw, with the top eight seeds receiving automatic entry into the second round.[7] The doubles followed a similar concept, with a 28 player draw facilitating that the top eight seeds went into round two. Both the singles and doubles were played on outdoor clay courts at the Monte Carlo Country Club.
Lapentti's run ended in the third round when he lost to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Andy Murray (4), Nikolay Davydenko (8), Fernando Verdasco (7), and Novak Djokovic (3) progressed to the quarterfinals, but second-seeded Roger Federer was defeated by 13th-seeded and fellow Swiss player Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka then defeated in straight sets one of the two non-seeded players left in the competition, qualifier Andreas Beck. In the other matches, Nadal beat wildcard Ivan Ljubičić, Murray defeated Davydenko, and Djokovic needed three sets to beat Verdasco.
Murray faced Nadal in the semifinals in Murray's first career clay court semifinal.[10] Nadal came into the match having lost just 14 times on clay in his career and won the match 6–2, 7–6.[11] Djokovic recovered from losing the first set against Wawrinka to win the next two sets and the match 4–6, 6–1, 6–3.[11] The top and the third ranked players in the world played each other in the final, with Nadal bidding to equal Federer's total of 14 Masters titles while Djokovic was appearing in his eighth Masters final.[12] In their sixteenth meeting, Nadal took the first set 6–3, Djokovic won the second 6–2, but Nadal won the third 6–1 to seal his fifth successive title at the Monte Carlo Masters and the 35th of his career.[13][14]
In the quarter-finals, Djokovic and Troicki's run continued as they knocked out Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles. Bob and Mike Bryan, Nestor and Zimonjić and Lukáš Dlouhý and Leander Paes also progressed, with Nestor and Zimonjić the only pair to defeat an unseeded pair in Čilić and Kiefer. In the semi-finals the Bryans beat Dlouhý and Paes 6–7, 6–3, [14–12] and Nestor/Zimonjić ended the run of Djokovic and Troicki 3–6, 6–1, [10–5].
The top two seeds met in the final. In a one-sided match Nestor and Zimonjić beat the Bryans 6–4, 6–1 to win their ninth title as a partnership.
