The 2009 SA Tennis Open was a men's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

tournament played on

hard courts A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface and ...

outdoors. It is the 18th edition of the

SA Tennis Open The SA Tennis Open was a professional men's tennis tournament in South Africa that ran for three years from 2009 to 2011. The tournament was played on outdoor hard courts, each February at Montecasino in Johannesburg. It started as a Grand Prix t ...

(and the first since

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

), and is part of the

ATP World Tour 250 series The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam tou ...

of the

2009 ATP World Tour The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour is the elite professional tennis circuit organised by the ATP. The 2009 ATP World Tour calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments (supervised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF ...

. It took place at the

Montecasino Montecasino, popularly shortened to ''Monte'', is a leisure and casino complex in Fourways, Sandton in Gauteng, South Africa. It was designed by American company Creative Kingdom Inc. and built by South African architects Bentel Associates ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, South Africa from 2 February through 8 February 2009. The singles line up was led by

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and ...

(ATP) No. 7 and

2008 Australian Open The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th 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 14 thro ...

runner-up

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

. Originally,

Gaël Monfils Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. His career high ...

was scheduled to play in the tournament, but later withdrew due to a wrist injury.

Review

The singles competition was won by Frenchman

who was the top seed for the tournament. On his route to the final he faced unseeded players Thiago Alves,

Denis Istomin Denis Olegovich Istomin (born 7 September 1986) is an Uzbek professional tennis player. He has won two singles titles (at the 2015 Aegon Open Nottingham and 2017 Chengdu Open) and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33 in Augu ...

and

Frederico Gil João Frederico Limpo Franco Gil (born 24 March 1985), known as Fred Gil (), is a retired Portuguese professional tennis player, who currently competes in the ITF Men's Circuit. He is ranked no. 432 in the world by the Association of Tennis Pro ...

, as well as seventh seed

Kristof Vliegen Kristof Vliegen (born 22 June 1982) is a Belgian former tennis player. He plays right-handed and he turned professional in 2001. He was a semi-finalist in Chennai in 2006 and in May of the same year, he reached the final of the ATP tourname ...

in the quarter-finals, winning them all in straight sets for the loss of only 22 games. His final opponent was his fellow countryman, the fifth-seeded

Jérémy Chardy Jérémy Chardy (; born 12 February 1987) is a French inactive professional tennis player. He has won one ATP Tour singles title, in Stuttgart in 2009. His best Grand Slam performance in singles was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2013 Austra ...

who had progressed against Jiří Vaněk, qualifiers

Marco Chiudinelli Marco Chiudinelli (born 10 September 1981) is a retired tennis player from Switzerland. A member of Switzerland's winning 2014 Davis Cup squad, he reached his highest singles ranking of 52 in February 2010 during a career that was often hindered ...

and

Sébastien de Chaunac Sébastien de Chaunac (born 7 October 1977) is a retired French professional tennis player. He mainly played ATP Challenger Series tournaments, capturing one singles and two doubles titles. He has appeared in the main draw of grand slam tourna ...

in straight sets before a more tricky test against second seed

David Ferrer David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP 250, ATP 500, Masters 1000) except at a major, a ...

. In the final Tsonga came through 7–6, 6–4 to take the title. Five South African players ( Kevin Anderson, Andrew Anderson,

Izak van der Merwe Izak van der Merwe (born 26 January 1984) is a retired South African tennis player. Van der Merwe had a career high ATP singles ranking of 113 achieved on 1 August 2011. Van der Merwe represented South Africa at the Davis Cup. He says he tri ...

Raven Klaasen Raven Klaasen ( ; born 16 October 1982) is a South African professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He achieved his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 7 in August 2019, and has won 19 doubles titles on the ATP Tour, includi ...

and

Rik de Voest Rik de Voest (born 5 June 1980) is a former professional South African tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 110 in August 2006. Rik resides in Vancouver, Canada where he pursues a career in real estate. De ...

) were present in the draw and the latter three reached the second round. de Voest knocked out sixth seed Iván Navarro while Klaasen defeated another Spaniard,

Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo (; born 6 January 1978 in Alicante, Spain) is a former professional male tennis player from Spain. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 50, achieved on 2 October 2006. His favourite surface is clay, where he ...

and van der Merwe overcame

Benjamin Becker Benjamin Becker (born 16 June 1981) is a German retired professional tennis player who is known for defeating former world No. 1 Andre Agassi in the third round at the 2006 US Open in what was Agassi's last match as a professional player. B ...

Finals

Singles

defeated

6–4, 7–6^(7–5) * It was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's 1st title of the year and his 3rd overall.

Doubles

James Cerretani Jamie Cerretani, (born October 2, 1981) is an American professional tennis player. A doubles specialist, he has won four ATP World Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professio ...

Dick Norman Dick Norman (born 1 March 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belgium. He achieved a degree of folk popularity among tennis fans due to his height (6 feet 8 inches), his left-handed power game and, in the last few years of h ...

defeated

Ashley Fisher Ashley Fisher (born 25 September 1975) is a professional tennis player who comes from New South Wales in Australia. Fisher turned professional in 1998. Fisher has never played a major singles match on the ATP Tour, but has won four notable d ...

6–7^(7–9), 6–2, 4–12

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009 Sa Tennis Open

Open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (Y ...

Sports competitions in Johannesburg 2000s in Johannesburg February 2009 sports events in Africa