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2009 Brisbane International
Date	January 4 – January 11
Edition	1st
2008 Champions
Men's singles
Michael Llodra
Women's singles
Na Li
Men's doubles
Martin Garcia / Marcelo Melo
Women's doubles
Dinara Safina / Agnes Szavay
Brisbane International · 2010 →

The ongoing 2009 Brisbane International is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It is the first edition of the event known as the Brisbane International and resulted from the merger of the Next Generation Adelaide International on the men's tour with the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts on the women's tour. The 2009 Brisbane International is a World Tour 250 series event on the ATP Tour and an International series event on the WTA Tour. Both the men's and women's events are taking place at the Tennyson Tennis Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, from January 4 through January 11, 2009.

The men's draw is led by Novak Djokovic, who is the current World No. 3 ranked player, 2008 Australian Open champion, 2008 Pacific Life Open champion, and 2008 Tennis Masters Cup winner. Joining Djokovic in the tournament is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is the 2008 Australian Open runner-up and the 2008 champion of the tournament in Bangkok and the Masters Series tournament in Paris. Fernando Verdasco, a member of Spain's 2008 Davis Cup championship team and the winner of the tournament in Umag, is also playing in Adelaide. Also lined up for this tournament are Lyon titlist Robin Soderling, Tokyo winner Tomas Berdych, Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet, and Radek Stepanek.

The women's field features Ana Ivanovic, who is the current World No. 5 ranked player, a former World No. 1, 2008 Australian Open runner-up, and champion of the 2008 French Open and 2008 Pacific Life Open. Joining Ivanovic in the tournament is Victoria Azarenka, who won the 2008 Generali Ladies Linz tournament late last year and was the runner-up at the 2008 Gold Coast tournament and the 2008 Prague Open tournament. Also present are Marion Bartoli, the runner-up at the 2008 tournament in Stanford; Daniela Hantuchova, 2008 Australian Open semifinalist; Amelie Mauresmo, a former World No. 1, champion of the 2008 tournament in Cincinnati, and semifinalist at the 2008 tournament in New Haven, Connecticut; World No. 26 Kaia Kanepi; and World No. 30 Francesca Schiavone. The seventh seed, Maria Kirilenko, had to withdraw because of a viral illness.

Review

Day one: January 4

In women's singles, Victoria Azarenka, the second seed, defeated Kateryna Bondarenko 6–0, 6–2. The third seed, Marion Bartoli, overcame home qualifier and World No. 528 Monika Wejnert 6–1, 6–2. The only seed to fall was sixth-seeded Kaia Kanepi who lost to Russian Alisa Kleybanova 6–1, 6–4. In other first round matches, Jarmila Gajdosova advanced to face Azarenka after beating Shuai Peng, and Tsvetana Pironkova defeated Monica Niculescu in straight sets.

Four matches were played in men's singles. Seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet advanced to the second round with a 4–6, 6–2, 6–2 victory over fellow Frenchman Marc Gicquel. Robin Soderling, the fourth seed, also reached the second round, beating Sam Querrey 6–3, 6–3. Taylor Dent and Julien Benneteau also won against Steve Darcis and Robbie Ginepri, respectively. Dent, who had thought his career was over following back surgery and sliding down to World No. 865 in the rankings from a career high of World No. 21, set up a second round match against Gasquet.

• Seeded player out (singles): Kaia Kanepi

Day two: January 5

First round play in women's and men's singles continued on day two while the doubles events also started. Four matches were completed in the men's singles tournament. Third-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, aiming for his first career hard court title, defeated Australian wildcard Bernard Tomic 6–2, 6–4. The other seed in action, Radek Stepanek from the Czech Republic, beat Russian doubles specialist Igor Kunitsyn 6–2, 6–2. The other players to progress to round two were Finnish player Jarkko Nieminen, who took just over 2 hours to win 5–7, 6–1, 6–4 against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, the 2007 Australian Open runner-up who is just now returning from injury. The only seed to exit the tournament on day two was Mardy Fish, the sixth-seeded American who lost 6–4, 4–6, 7–6(4) to Jurgen Melzer of Austria.

The majority of first round matches in the women's singles was played on day two, with three of the seeds failing to progress. Fourth-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova was knocked out by Italian Sara Errani. After taking the first set in a tiebreak, she lost the next two sets 6–0, 6–4. Eighth-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy lost 7–5, 6–2 to Belarusian Olga Govortsova. Ai Sugiyama, who replaced Maria Kirilenko as a seeded player, was defeated by home-favourite Samantha Stosur 6–2, 6–3. A couple of seeds did make the second round, however: top seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic needed 1 hour, 45 minutes to win her match against Czech Petra Kvitova 6–4, 6–2 and fomer World No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, the fifth-seeded Frenchwoman, triumphed 7–6(9), 7–6(5) over home player Jelena Dokic. Qualifiers Roberta Vinci (Italy), Melinda Czink (Hungary) and Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva advanced against Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Alona Bondarenko, and Iveta Benesova. Lucky loser Julie Coin of France, who was accepted into the tournament when Kirilenko withdrew, beat Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 7–5, 6–7(5), 7–6(3) in the longest women's match so far at almost 3 hours 20 minutes. Unseeded Czech Lucie Safarova also won against Australian wildcard Isabella Holland 6–4, 6–3.

Just one match was played in the women's doubles and it saw unseeded duo Mervana Jugic-Salkic from Bosnia and Chinese player Shaui Peng defeat Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan and Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine 6–1, 6–4. In the men's competition, third seeds Simon Aspelin and Pavel Vizner saw off singles players Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra 6–4, 7–5 while in a match of the singles specialists, French duo Marc Gicquel and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat countryman Paul-Henri Mathieu and his Croatian partner Mario Ancic 7–5, 4–6, (champions tiebreak).

• Seeded players out (singles): Mardy Fish; Francesca Schiavone, Daniela Hantuchova, Ai Sugiyama
• Seeded players out (doubles): None

Day three: January 6

First round play was completed and second round play was started in men's singles, resulting in several upsets of seeded players. World No. 3 and top-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic lost his first round match to Latvia's Ernest Gulbis 6–4, 6–4. Gulbis, who reached a career-high ranking of World No. 38 during 2008 that included a maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal, was rewarded with a match against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu who beat Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili 6–3, 6–3. The other seeds to play their first matches were Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Argentinian Agustin Calleri, currently ranked World No. 62, 6–2, 7–5, and fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych who advanced 6–0, 6–4 to a second round match against Kei Nishikori, the Japanese player who beat Bobby Reynolds of America 6–2, 6–3. Mario Ancic, Florent Serra, and Michael Llodra all won their first round matches, against Amer Delic, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and home qualifier Joseph Sirianni. Fourth-seeded Robin Soderling and seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet won their second round matches: Gasquet defeated Taylor Dent 7–5, 6–4 while Soderling recorded a 6–3, 6–3 triumph against Julien Benneteau.

The second round started in women's singles. Second seed Victoria Azarenka took over 2 hours to win her match against Slovakian born but Australian based Jarmila Gajdosova 7–6, 7–5. The match between Tathiana Garbin and Alisa Kleybanova took 2 hours 20 minutes to complete, with the former winning 4–6, 6–4, 6–2. The fourth seed Marion Bartoli emerged victorious in a match lasting half an hour less despite taking three sets, beating qualifier Melinda Czink 5–7, 6–3, 6–1. Lucie Safarova defeated home-favourite Samantha Stosur in the night session 6–4, 6–4 in under an hour to reach the quarterfinals. The Australian, whose ranking had dropped to outside the top 150 while she was ill with meningitis, lost despite feeling she had been hitting the ball well. Safarova is due to play Azarenka, and Bartoli will face Garbin.

The men's doubles saw its first seeds eliminated as second seeds Marcelo Melo (defending champion with Martin Garcia) and Andre Sa losing to American Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek from Slovakia. Their next opponents will be the new partnership of Briton Jamie Murray and Slovakian Dusan Vemic, who defeated the Austrian pair Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 6–7(14), 6–2, (champions tiebreak). Top seeds Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram needed three sets to defeat Czechs Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych 4–6, 6–2, . The fourth seeded pair - Czech Martin Damm and Swede Robert Lindstedt - narrowly won against the South American pairing of Argentinian Lucas Arnold Ker and Brazilian Bruno Soares 7–5, 7–5. Their next match will be against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and German Mischa Zverev who beat Australians Brydan Klein and youngster Bernard Tomic 7–6(4), 7–6(5). Home players Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione beat Americans Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey by the same scoreline.

Five more matches took place in the women's doubles first round, with all four seeds securing victory. Top seeded South African-American duo Cara Black and Liezel Huber beat France's Severine Bremond and Olga Govortsova 6–3, 6–3 while the second seeds, Ukrainian sisters Kateryna and Alona Bondarenko, defeated Alisa Kleybanova and Monica Niculescu 3–6, 6–4, . Italian third seeds Victoria Azarenka and Francesca Schiavone followed up their singles successes by knocking out Tatiana Poutchek and Anastasia Rodionova 6–3, 6–2. Tiantian Sun and Zi Yan, the fourth seeded Chinese pair, beat Iveta Benesova and Yaroslava Shvedova 3–6, 7–6(12), . In the only non-seeded match, Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama eased through against home wildcards Monica Wejnert and Sophie Ferguson 6–2, 6–3.

• Seeded players out (singles): Novak Djokovic
• Seeded players out (doubles): Marcelo Melo/Andre Sa

Day four: January 7

• Seeded players out (singles): T Berdych
• Seeded players out (doubles): Simon Aspelin/Pavel Visner; Cara Black/Liezel Huber; Tiantian Sun/Zi Yan;

Day five: January 8

• Seeded players out (singles): Ana Ivanovic
• Seeded players out (doubles): A Bondarenko/K Bondarenko; M Mirnyi/A Ram; M Damm/R Lindstedt

Champions

Men's singles

TBD vs. TBD

Women's singles

Marion Bartoli vs. Victoria Azarenka

Men's doubles

TBD / TBD vs. TBD / TBD

Women's doubles

Klaudia Jans / Alicja Rosolska vs. TBD / TBD

References

1. "Men's Singles Draw" (PDF). atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
2. "Women's Singles Draw" (PDF). sonyericssonwtatour.com. 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
3. "Top seeds clinch opening win of season in Brisbane". Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. 2009-01-04. Retrieved 2009-01-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
4. "Gasquet first match winner of 2009". The Press Association. 2009-01-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Ubha, Ravi (2009-05-19). "Dent hoping effort, medical science get him back on track". ESPN. Retrieved 2009-01-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
6. "Nieminen edges Baghdatis in Brisbane". atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. "Erani stuns Hantuchova; Mauresmo outclasses Dokic". sonyericssonwtatour.com. 2009-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Mauresmo overcomes Dokic". skysports.com. 2009-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. "Baghdatis comeback halted". skysports.com. 2009-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. "Nadal-Lopez reach Doha quarterfinals". atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. "Gulbis stuns Djokovic in Brisbane". BBC Sport. 2009-01-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. "Gulbis upsets Djokovic in opener". atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. "Azarenka dashes Gajdosova's hopes". Brisbane International. 2009-01-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. "Stosur out of Brisbane International". Brisbane International. 2009-01-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
15. "Azarenka and Bartoli survive tests; Stosur stumbles". sonyericssonwtatour.com. 2009-01-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Nestor-Zimonjic advance in Doha". atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Ivanovic dumped out in Brisbane". BBC Sport. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
18. "Brisbane quarter-final exit for new team". atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
19. "Tsonga wins marathon, Verdasco into QFs". atpworldtour.com. 2009-01-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
20. "Coin, Vinci left to rue lost opportunities". sonyericssonwtatour.com. 2009-01-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official website
• Men's Singles Draw
• Men's Doubles Draw
• Men's Qualifying Singles Draw
• Women's Singles, Doubles and Qualifying Singles Draws

• 2009 Brisbane International
• 2009 ATP World Tour
• 2009 WTA Tour
• 2009 in tennis
• Brisbane International