A Flawless Djokovic Wins his Second Slam

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Novak Djokovic won his second Australian Open last night, blasting past Andy Murray in three sets. Djokovic dropped only one set in the entire tournament, defeating both fellow Ozeki (=Champion)Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals and Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion) Roger Federer in straight sets. A truly impressive feat by a matured, determined Djokovic who played marvelously intelligent and disciplined tennis the two weeks in Melbourne. The only player who might have been able to trouble him, Yokozuna Rafael Nadal--who had beaten Djokovic in the final of the US Open--went out injured in the quarterfinals.

Djokovic is now on a Yokozuna run. A final participation at the French Open would elevate him to Grand Champion status: with 2 Grand Slam titles already won, a series F-W-F is sufficient for Yokozuna. And who would doubt that in this form, Djokovic can be at least the second best clay court player of the world. Djokovic also enters the top 20 of the Yokozuna tennis open era ranking (from #31 before this tournament), probably at #19 between Ilie Nastase and Lleyton Hewitt.

Andy Murray lost the third grand slam final of his career: after two straight set losses to Federer (US Open 2009, Australian Open 2010) now another against Djokovic, who like Murray is just 23 years of age. Also not for the first time Murray fell just one victory short of an Ozeki promotion. There is no doubt that Murray plays at Ozeki level, but to date he has been lacking the consistency at the slams that is necessary for an Ozeki run. At this stage, a semifinal at Roland Garros or a final in Wimbledon would do it for the lanky Scot.

Seminfalist and ex-Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) David Ferrer returned to the sanyaku (=Championship) ranks as a Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) after more than two years of absence. Stanislaw Warwinka of Switzerland reached the sanyaku ranks for the first time, owing to back-to-back quarterfinal participations at the US and the Australian Open.

Here is the men's sanyaku (Championship rank) line-up following the 2011 Australian Open:

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Roger Federer	Y	Rafael Nadal	Y
O	Novak Djokovic	O	Tomas Berdych	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Andy Murray	S	-	-
S	Robin Soderling	K1	David Ferrer	S
K	Stanislaw Wawrinka	K2	-	-

Kim Clijsters, Yokozuna

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Kim Clijsters became the 16th female Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) of open era tennis last night, by winning her fourth grand slam and the first pair of major titles back-to-back (together with the 2010 US Open title). Clijsters' is the first Yokozuna promotion in the ladies' game since the US Open 2003, when her compatriot Justine Henin attained the highest championship rank. Incidentally, Henin had to announce her second and probably definite retirement from the sport at these Australian Open also, suffering from a chronic elbow injury. At 27 years, Clijsters Yokozuna promotion comes late in her career.

Clijsters won a close and exciting final against Chinese Na Li (pictured below--Li is the family name, thus we write her name this way), who returns to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) rank as a result--a rank she first obtained at the Australian Open last year, when she lost the semifinal to Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams (Serena sat out this Australian Open injured). Na is a French Open semifinal away from an Ozeki (=Champion) promotion, as is her seminfinal opponent Caroline Wozniacki, who will stay at Sekiwake. Clijsters semi-final opponent Vera Zvonareva defended succesfully Ozeki rank. Quarterfinalist Francesca Schiavone will remain at Sekiwake, while Samantha Stosur (3rd round exit) and retired ex-Ozeki Elena Dementieva will be demoted to Komusubi (=Junior Champion II), where they will be joined by quarterfinalist Petra Kvitova.

To this writer is seems that female tennis is finally recovering from a long through during which the game became too dependent on the Williams sisters, and during which hopefuls like Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic or Dinara Safina--all reaching Ozeki rank--could not live up to expectations after promising starts, with failure often related to injury. The "new" bunch--lead by Clijsters, Zvonareva, Li, Wozniacki, Stosur--seems to have a critical mass of quality that promises to make female Grand Slam tennis interesting. Not yet the days of Evert, Navratilova, Goolagong, Mandlikova, or of Graf, Seles, Sanchez-Vicario, but getting there.

Still outstanding is the men's final between long-standing Ozeki Novak Djokovic and long-standing Ozeki hopeful Andy Murray. If Murray beats his buddy Novak tonight he will finally have taken the "great hurdle" --this is what the Japanese term "Ozeki" means literally. The match is the rare event of a Grand Slam final without the Yokozuna Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who went out in the semis (Federer to a brilliant Djokovic) and quarterfinals (an injured Nadal to his compatriot David Ferrer, who was then wrestled into sumbission by Murray in the semis) respectively. I expect a final of highest quality.

Here are the ladies' sanyaku (=championship) ranks following the 2011 Australian Open:

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Venus Williams	Y1	Serena Williams	Y
Y	Kim Clijsters	Y2	-	-
O	Vera Zvonareva	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Na Li	S1	Caroline Wozniacki	S
S	Francesca Schiavone	S2	-	-
S	Samantha Stosur	K1	Elena Dementieva*	O
K	Petra Kvitova	K2	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
* retired