2009 ATP World Tour Finals Radek Štěpánek and the Malaysian Open losing to Nikolay Davydenko. Verdasco is making his debut at the championship. After Roddick's withdrawal due to left leg injury on 17 November Robin Söderling was announced as his replacement. Robin Söderling 's highlight of the year was reaching the French Open final. After becoming the first player to defeat Rafael Nadal at the Roland Garros. He won his only title of the year at the Catella Swedish Open defeating Juan Mónaco. He reached 4 semifinals as well at the Heineken Open, Proton Malaysian Open, China Open, and the If Stockholm Open. Soderling is
Rafael Nadal he defeated Mischa Zverev for the loss of just two games; Nadal began the Australian Open with straight-set wins over Florian Mayer and Marcos Baghdatis, before more difficult wins over Alexander Zverev and Gael Monfils, which set up his first quarterfinal berth at a Grand Slam since the 2015 French Open. Nadal defeated Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively (the latter lasting for five sets over five hours), to set up a final against Roger Federer, his first Grand Slam final since he won the 2014 French Open. Nadal went on to lose to Federer in