2009 French Open whilst Fernando Verdasco beat countryman Nicolás Almagro and Robin Söderling, the 23rd seed, set up a clash with Nadal by beating David Ferrer in four sets. Ágnes Szávay stunned third seed Venus Williams 6–0, 6–4, and Novak Djokovic beat Sergiy Stakhovsky. Additionally, defending champion Ana Ivanovic, Đoković's compatriot, advanced convincingly over Iveta Benešová, seeded 32nd, 6–0, 6–2. Andy Murray led Janko Tipsarević two sets to love before the Serb retired. Schedule of play Schedule of play Day 8 saw Rafael Nadal lose his first ever match at French Open to Swede Robin Söderling, which ended his streak of 31 wins
Rafael Nadal 81. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2005, with eleven 6–0 sets during the year. Also, he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award. Nadal missed the Australian Open because of a foot injury. In February, he lost in the semifinals of the first tournament he played, the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France. Two weeks later, he handed Roger Federer his first loss of the year in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open (in 2006, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were the only