Fare Well, Champion

A great Ozeki (=Champion) has retired from the sport of tennis: two-time grand slam winner Na Li.


Na Li, the 29th female Ozeki of the open era

Fare well, champion. You will be missed.
 

Promotions and Demotions Following the 2014 US Open

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Marin Cilic	Ozeki*	Maegashira
Kei Nishikori	Sekiwake*	Maegashira
Caroline Wozniacki	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Elena Makarova	Sekiwake*	Maegashira
Gael Monfils	Komusubi	Maegashira
Shuai Peng	Komusubi*	Maegashira
Sara Errani (ex-Sekiwake)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
David Ferrer	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Milos Raonic	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Na Li (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Grigor Dimitrov	Maegashira	Komusubi
Lucie Safarova	Maegashira	Komusubi

* New career high

Winds of Change

For the first time in almost 10 years, there was no Roger Federer, no Rafael Nadal, and also no Novak Djokovic. The three reigning Yokozuna (=Grand Champions), who had sent at least one of them to the last 38 grand slam finals - winning 34 of them - were all absent. Also missing was long-standing Ozeki (=Champion) Andy Murray.

Instead two relative nobodies played the mens' 2014 US Open final: Marin Cilic, whose best slam performance thus far had been a single semifinal participation at the 2010 Australian Open. And Kei Nishikori, who had never made a grand slam quarterfinal. In the event, the hard-hitting Croatian, measuring almost 2 meters, outgunned the nimble Japanese counterpuncher 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

The win was surely well deserved. Cilic had crushed Roger Federer in straight sets in the semifinals, after doing the same in the quarterfinals to ex-Ozeki Tomas Berdych. Together with his quarterfinal participation at Wimbledon - where Cilic lost a tight fivesetter to Djokovic - this grants Cilic a promotion to Ozeki; he is the 32nd male Ozeki of the open era (a rank that Cilic's coach and compatriot Goran Ivanisevic never attained, by the way).

Nishikori had an arguably even tougher route to the final, having to overcome Sekiwake Milos Raonic, Ozeki Stanislas Wawrinka, and Yokozuna Novak Djokovic in long, grueling matches. With this final, Nishikori earns a promotion to Sekiwake, which makes him the first Asian born, sanyaku (champion) ranked player of the open era. Given that the Yokozuna-tennis ranking system takes its inspiration from Ozumo - Japan's national sport - a circle comes to completion.

Many observers have declared this year's US Open would mark the end of the "big 4". After all, Federer has lost consistency - at the biblical tennis age of 33 - Nadal and Murray are increasingly prone to injury, and Djokovic has not quite returned to his dominance of 2011. And yet - for much of the second week of the US Open, conditions were plain irregular, with temperatures of 95F (35C) and humidity levels around 70 pecent. Success had as much to do with being able to cope with tropical conditions as with the tennis playing capacity. The next few slams will show what these Open's outcome is worth.

 

As regards the remainder of the banzuke (=-ranking list), Ozeki Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka both reached the quarterfinals and therefore hold rank - in the case of Murray for the 15th straight time. David Ferrer, by contrast, missed the quarterfinals for the second consecutive slam and thus gets demoted to Sekiwake, after six tournaments at Ozeki. Ferrer will share that rank with Nikishori. Raonic drops one rank to Komusubi (=Junior Champion 2), where he will be joined by Berdych and colorful Gael Monfils, who returns to Komusubi for the third time in his career, after giving Federer a stiff five-set challenge in the quarterfinals. Grigor Dimitrov, who lost to Monfils in round 4, drops out of the sanykau ranks.

 

5 players in lower sanyaku is something the male banzuke has not seen in some time: the dominant "big 4" had not given many other players a chance to earn ranking points. This - at least for now - has changed.   

  

The mens' sanyaku ranks at the end of the 2014 grand slam season are therefore as follows:
 

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Roger Federer	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Rafael Nadal	Y2	-	-
O	Andy Murray	O1	Stanislas Wawrinka	O
O	Marin Cilic	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	David Ferrer	S	Kei Nishikori	S
S	Milos Raonic	K1	Tomas Berdych	O
K	Gael Monfils	K2	-	-

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

Serena Joins the Legends amid an Ozeki Massacre

Dai-Yokozuna (great Grand Champion) Serena Williams added an 18th grand slam title to her career by dispatching Caroline Wozniacki without much ado in the final of the 2014 US Open. Serena - who had failed to reach the grand slam quarterfinal at the last three occasions, and thus had to make at least the seminfinal at Flushing Meadow to remain an active Yokozuna - cruised through the field, with no opponent winning more than 3 games in any set Serena played.

With 18 major titles, Serena has pulled even with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. We keep her behind these legends in the open era ranking for now, as Navratilova and, especially, Evert did not always play the Australian Open, in line with the standard at their time. But a couple more titles and Serena will be #3. Next in sight is Steffi Graf with 22 titles.

The other high sanyaku ranked players (senior champions) experienced a debacle. Serena's co-Yokozuna (Grand Champion) Maria Sharapova lost in round 4 to Wozniacki. Sharapova hasn't played Yokozuna type tennis since her promotion at this year's French Open, and will need to reach the semis at the 2015 Australian or French Open to remain an active Yokozuna. And the three players who had been promoted to Ozeki (Champion) at Wimbledon - up-and-coming Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep, as well as double-Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova - also lost in rounds 3 or 4, and therefore go immediately kadoban, i.e. they need a quarterfinal at the 2015 Australian Open to avoid demotion. Ex-Ozeki Viktoria Azarenka, coming back from injury, made a courageous effort to win back her erstwhile rank - a semifinal would have been nough - but fell one win short.

Finalist Wozniacki - who played a fine tournament until falling to Serena - returns to Sekiwake (Junior Champion I); a rank she has already held 5 times - last after the 2012 Australian Open. A semifinal in January in Melbourne and she would finally make it to Ozeki; a rank that her career record starts suggesting. Wozniacki shares Sekiwake rank with Azarenka and semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova, who made her sanyaku breakthrough after having been close several times before. Makarova is the 42nd female Sekiwake of the open era.

Another first-time sanyaku promotion, in this case to Komusubi (=Junior Champion 2), earned Shuai Peng. Peng is the third Chinese sanyaku-ranked player of the open era, after Na Li (career high Ozeki) and Jie Zheng (another Komusubi), and the 59th female Komusubi of the open era. The dramatic scenes of the semi-final - when Peng collapsed on a brutally hot and humid court, and was consolated by her opponent Wozniacki - will not be forgotten that quickly. Peng shares Komusubi rank with her compatriot Li, who had to sit the US Open out with an injury, and ex-Sekiwake and quarterfinalist Sara Errani.

The ladies' sanyaku ranks at the end of the 2014 grand slam season are therefore as follows:

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Maria Sharapova	Y
O	Eugenie Bouchard*	O1	Simona Halep*	O
O	Petra Kvitova*	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Viktoria Azarenka	S1	Caroline Wozniacki	S
S	Ekaterina Makarova	S2	-	-
O	Na Li	K1	Shuai Peng	K
S	Sara Errani	K2	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
* kadoban
Venus Williams is an 'inactive' Yokozuna