US Open 2009 Online

US Open 2009 Online

Live DirecTV coverage of the 2009 US Open Tennis Championship.

Originally, it was scheduled to end with the men's singles final match on Sunday, September 13, but due to rain the tournament was extended by one day. Like the Australian Open, the tournament featured night matches.

Former World No. 1 and 2005 US Open women's singles champion, Kim Clijsters, competed in the 2009 US Open after being granted a wild card entry, returning to professional tennis after more than two years of retirement. She made it to the women's singles semi-finals, where she knocked out the defending champion Serena Williams in controversial circumstances. In the final, Clijsters defeated Caroline Wozniacki, the first Dane, man or woman, to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era, in straight sets: 7-5, 6-3. Clijsters thus became the first mother to win a Grand Slam since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. In the process, she also became the first unseeded player and wild card to win the tournament.

In the men's singles final, five-time defending champion Roger Federer lost to Argentina's Juan Martín del Potro in a match lasting over four hours.

On the women's side, former world no. 1 Kim Clijsters opened the play, winning over Viktoriya Kutuzova losing only two games. Joining her were defending 2009 Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Serena Williams, Amélie Mauresmo, Victoria Azarenka, Flavia Pennetta, Elena Vesnina, Agnieszka Radwanska, Li Na and Marion Bartoli who all won in two sets.

Australian Samantha Stosur was pushed by veteran player Ai Sugiyama in three sets, Daniela Hantuchová got past American Meghann Shaughnessy in three as well. In the first night match, Venus Williams was able to claw her way to avoid an upset to win against Russian Vera Dushevina in a very close three-setter. Venus committed four foot faults in the match. With Venus and Serena getting past the first round, a few American players saw success on the women's side with Vania King, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Jill Craybas getting to the second round. Austrian and 28th seeded Sybille Bammer, who defeated Serena Williams in Cincinnati, and 25th seeded Kaia Kanepi were the only casualties of the day.

The second day of the tournament, on the men's side, many seeded players got through in straight sets: 2008 US Open runner-up Andy Murray, 2008 Australian Open Champion Novak Djokovic, Tomás Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando González, and Fernando Verdasco. No. 30 seed Victor Troicki survived a five-set scare, 6-3, 6-3, 1-6, 2-6, 6-1. However, some seeds failed to be as lucky and fell in the first round with Ivo Karlovic falling to Iván Navarro and Igor Andreev falling to American Jesse Witten, both in straight sets, while Stanislas Wawrinka fell in five. American players were once again successful, with 5 out of the 11 getting past the first round: Sam Querrey, Kevin Kim, Jesse Witten, Jesse Levine, and Taylor Dent.

On the second day, on the women's side, the first major upset of the tournament occurred with Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko upsetting 11th seed and former world no. 1 Ana Ivanovic. Ivanovic committed 50 unforced errors. In the second round, her sister Alona Bondarenko, 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova and Tathiana Garbin all advanced. Other seeded players that were eliminated in the first round were 32nd seed Ágnes Szávay, losing to Israeli Shahar Pe'er in straight sets, Alisa Kleybanova, losing to Petra Kvitová in three and Virginie Razzano losing to Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets. Day 2 was a good day for women American players with three out of five getting through: Melanie Oudin, Shenay Perry, and Christina McHale. However, world no. 1 Dinara Safina struggled in her match against Olivia Rogowska but manage to survive, winning in three sets.

During the second day, on the doubles side, the day was led by 2nd seeded Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, who won in straight sets, and the only seeds that were eliminated were No. 15 seed Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins.

The third day Rafael Nadal played his first match at the 2009 US Open and winning against his friend Richard Gasquet. He was joined by no. 1 seed Roger Federer, Juan Martín del Potro, Gael Monfils, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Gilles Simon, who all won in straight, while David Ferrer, Nicolás Almagro and American Robby Ginepri won in 4. Joining them was Austrian Jürgen Melzer, who defeated Marat Safin in Safin's last Grand Slam match.

The third day on the women's side, upsets continued with Amélie Mauresmo falling to Aleksandra Wozniak, Anabel Medina Garrigues losing to Kirsten Flipkens, and dark horse favorite Australian Samantha Stosur losing to American Vania King, all in straight sets, while Marion Bartoli and Aga Radwanska both fell to resurging players Kim Clijsters and Maria Kirilenko in three. However, the day also saw half of the seeds getting through easily and was led by former champion Venus Williams and Flavia Pennetta, who won in double bagel, Victoria Azarenka, Francesca Schiavone, Elena Vesnina, and Li Na. The day ended for the first time in over 30 years in the US Open history by a women's match, which saw Serena Williams dispatching Melinda Czink in just 53 minutes.

The third day on the doubles side, there were a couple of major upsets: sixth seeded Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, fell in their opening round, as well as unseeded world no. 8 in doubles Lisa Raymond and her partner Shenay Perry.

Day 4 continued the success of the top men's seeds, with no. 4 seed Novak Djokovic dispatching Carsten Ball 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. He was joined by 2009 French Open runner-up Robin Söderling, 2009 French Open semifinalist Tommy Haas, 2009 Hamburg Open Champion Nikolay Davydenko, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Tommy Robredo. The Americans once again took advantage of their home court, with four of them winning their matches: James Blake surviving against Olivier Rochus in four, with Blake committing 53 unforced errors, John Isner, Jesse Witten, and Sam Querrey. Andy Roddick once again got through easily against Marc Gicquel 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. He produced 33 winners and only 10 unforced errors in the last match of the night.

Day 4 on the women's side received a lot of buzz, with 17-year-old American Melanie Oudin upsetting hot favorite and US Open Series champion Elena Dementieva in the second round. Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan upset last year's runner-up Jelena Jankovic in three sets. Seeded players who joined Dementieva and Jankovic were Alona Bondarenko, who lost to Gisela Dulko, and Patty Schnyder, who lost in straight sets, while Sabine Lisicki lost in three to the last Australian and qualifier on the draw Anastasia Rodionova. No. 1 seed Dinara Safina once again survived a scare from Kristina Barrois, winning 6(5)-7, 6-2, 6-3. However, a few seeded players got through quite easily, led by Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Nadia Petrova, and Danish player Caroline Wozniacki. Unseeded players who got through in straight sets were Kateryna Bondarenko, who eliminated Ivanovic, Shahar Pe'er, Sara Errani, and Petra Kvitová.

Day 4 on the doubles side, it was the opposite, with all of the women's doubles seeds getting through. However, on the men's side, the highest seeded players who fell were no. 9 seeded Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach, losing to veteran doubles players Leos Friedl and Jaroslav Levinsky.

The fifth day of the US Open saw many seeds struggle on the men's side, with no. 30 seed Viktor Troicki losing to Julien Benneteau in four sets, and no. 18 seed David Ferrer losing to José Acasuso in five sets. This day also saw Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray struggle with their matches, with both of them being pushed to four sets. A couple of seeds were also pushed to four: Tomás Berdych and Fernando González. No. 24 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero and no. 16 seed Marin Cilic both survived their matches, despite losing the first two sets. Many victors were pushed to five sets: Nicolás Almagro, a returning Taylor Dent, and Denis Istomin. Although many seeds struggled, French seeds got through easily with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, and Gilles Simon winning their Matches on straight sets. They were joined by Argentine Juan Martín del Potro, who also won in straight sets.

Day 5 on the women's side, there were not a lot of surprises, except Victoria Azarenka, who fell to Italian Francesca Schiavone in three sets after Azarenka double-faulted on a match point. The rest of the matches were all won in straight sets, led by Serena Williams, who defeated María José Martínez Sánchez, who had a controversial match at the 2009 French Open. She was joined by Daniela Hantuchová, who crushed American Vania King, Li Na, Kim Clijsters, Flavia Pennetta, and Venus Williams. One seeded player, Elena Vesnina, was eliminated, but it wasn't a major shocker, as she fell to 7th seed Vera Zvonareva.

Day 5 on the doubles side, there were no major surprises on the men's side, but on the women's side, seventh seeded Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng were ousted by the American team of Alexa Glatch and Carly Gullickson. They were followed by no. 14 seed Sania Mirza and Francesca Schiavone, who lost to Shahar Pe'er and Gisela Dulko in a tight three-setter.

Day 6 the five-time defending champion Swiss Roger Federer took out the 2001 Champion Lleyton Hewitt in four sets after losing the first to set up a match-up with Spaniard Tommy Robredo in the fourth round, who beat American James Blake in three sets. Swede Robin Söderling took out the young American Sam Querrey in four sets in order to advance to face Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the fourth round, who won his match against Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli in straight sets. One-time slam champion Novak Djokovic won in a four-set match after losing the first set against American qualifier Jesse Witten in order to advance to the fourth round against Czech Radek Stepánek, who won in a match against German Philipp Kohlschreiber in four sets after losing the first. Spaniard Fernando Verdasco sent German Tommy Haas packing in a brutal five-set match, Verdasco met American John Isner in the next round because Isner eliminated the 2003 champion Andy Roddick from the tournament in another five-set battle.

During the sixth day American Melanie Oudin defeated three-time slam champion and 2006 US Open Champion Russian Maria Sharapova in three sets, losing the first and winning the next two to advance into the fourth round. Russian Nadia Petrova defeated Chinese Zheng Jie 6-4, 6-1 to set up a match with Melanie Oudin in the fourth round. Danish Caroline Wozniacki took out doubles partner Romanian Sorana Cîrstea in the third round in 6-3, 6-2, which allowed her to set up a match with Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round, after Kuznetsova beat Israeli Shahar Pe'er 7-5, 6-1. Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko bested Australian qualifier Anastasia Rodionova in the third round 7-6(4), 6-4, which allowed her to meet Argentine Gisela Dulko, who beat Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-4. Czech Petra Kvitová took down top-seeded world no. 1 Russian Dinara Safina in three up-and-down sets 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5). This set up a fourth-round match with Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who took down Italian Sara Errani with a score of 6-3, 6-4.

The first day of the tournaments saw many seeds get through pretty easily in straight sets: Roger Federer, James Blake, Lleyton Hewitt, Nikolay Davydenko and Radek Stepánek. The day also produced a couple of upsets, when Mikhail Youzhny continued 26th seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu's horrible US Open record by beating him in four. While, tall American John Isner did the same to 28th seeded Victor Hanescu by ending the Romanian's 2009 bid in three with the second set going to a tie-break 16-14. The exciting day continued with a couple of five-set marathons, with Simon Greul defeating Giovanni Lapentti, Guillermo García-López out-lasting Peter Polansky, and Jan Hernych surviving against Rainer Schüttler. The days last match featured America's hope Andy Roddick prevailing over Björn Phau in straight sets in a match that started at 11:00 pm.