The Top 20 Players of the Open Era - Update

All-Time #1 Roger Federer

By virtue of Roger Federer winning his 20th slam and becoming a "Double-Dai-Yokozuna", it is time to move him up to first spot in our all-time ranking (more precisely: the ranking of players who played all or part of their careers in the open era).

The comparisons with the older greats Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall are necessarily murky, and one still could make arguments for either of these (Laver: calendar year open era slam, Rosewall: 22 majors (pro and amateur) in a period when among the pros there were only 3 majors a year). But long ago we drew the line for Federer at either winning a calendar year slam himself or at piling up 20 grand slam titles, and the latter line has now been crossed.

Just in case you wonder, Serena Williams will move to the #1 spot once she wins her 24th slam.

Note: active players are in bold .

The Top 20 of the Open Era

	Male Players	Highest Rank			Female Players	Highest Rank
1	Roger Federer	Dai-Y		1	Margaret Court	Dai-Y
2	Rod Laver	Dai-Y		2	Serena Williams	Dai-Y
3	Ken Rosewall	Dai-Y		3	Steffi Graf	Dai-Y
4	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y		4	Chris Evert	Dai-Y
5	Pete Sampras	Dai-Y		5	Martina Navratilova	Dai-Y
6	Bjorn Borg	Dai-Y		6	Billie Jean King	Dai-Y
7	Novak Djokovic	Dai-Y		7	Monica Seles	Dai-Y
8	Ivan Lendl	Y		8	Evonne Goolagong	Y
9	Jimmy Connors	Y		9	Venus Williams	Y
10	Andre Agassi	Y		10	Justine Henin	Y
11	John McEnroe	Y		11	Martina Hingis	Y
12	Mats Wilander	Y		12	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	Y
13	Stefan Edberg	Y		13	Maria Sharapova	Y
14	Boris Becker	Y		14	Hana Mandlikova	Y
15	John Newcombe	Y		15	Kim Clijsters	Y
16	Andy Murray	Y		16	Lindsay Davenport	Y
17	Jim Courier	Y		17	Jennifer Capriati	Y
18	Guillermo Vilas	O		18	Ann Haydon-Jones	O
19	Arthur Ashe	O		19	Virginia Wade	O
20	Stan Wawrinka	O		20	Gabriela Sabatini	O

Ray Emerson, Maria Bueno not included as most of their successes were before the open era.

Updated: January 29, 2018

The 2018 Australian Open: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2018 Australian Open Winners:

• Roger Federer (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Caroline Wozniacki (Maegashira, ex-Sekiwake)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Kyle Edmund, the 86th Male Komusubi of the Open Era

• Chung Hyeon, the 87th Male Komusubi of the Open Era

• Elise Mertens, the 62nd Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Marin Cilic	Ozeki	Komusubi
Simona Halep (ex-Ozeki)	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Caroline Wozniacki	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Tomas Berdych (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Angelique Kerber (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Kyle Edmund	Komusubi	Maegashira
Chung Hyeon	Komusubi	Maegashira
Elise Mertens	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Jelena Ostapenko	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Garbine Muguruza	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Stan Wawrinka (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Sam Querrey	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Kevin Anderson	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Coco Vandeweghe	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Sloane Stephens	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Juan Martin del Potro (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Pablo Carreno Busta	Maegashira	Komusubi


Kinboshi:
("gold star" - prize awarded to a non-sanyaku ranked competitor for beating an active Yokozuna):

• Chung Hyeon - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Novak Djkokovic in round 4.
• Belinda Bencic - for beating Yokozuna Venus Williams in round 2.

Other noteworthy developments:

• Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams becomes inactive after missing her fourth grand slam tournament. A seminal or two quarterfinals within the next four slams suffice to reactivate Yokozuna status
• Jelena Ostapenko and Garbine Muguruza lost Ozeki rank. As Sekiwake-Ozeki, they still enjoy limited rank protection for one more tournament: a semifinal at the 2018 French Open would suffice for a return to Ozeki.
• Sekiwake and ex-Ozeki Stan Wawrinka lost in round 2 and loses rank protection, meaning that there is no longer a quick return path to Ozeki (other than winning the French Open)
• Ozeki Karolina Pliskova and Sekiwake Madison Keys hold rank with quarterfinal participations. Keys was one win away from an Ozeki promotion, but lost to Kerber in the quarterfinals.
• Marin Cilic moves up to Ozeki for the second time in his career, as a result of the final participations at Wimbledon 2017 and these Australian Open. His first spell, which followed the slam victory at the 2014 US Open, lasted only two tournaments.
• Carline Wozniacki's first slam victory brings her back to Sekiwake for the 7th time in her career, equaling Wendy Turnbulls' and Zina Garrison's record. Moreover, with one title, two (lost) finals and four additional semifinal participations, she is arguably the strongest career-high Sekiwake of the open era now - her stats would be befitting for an Ozeki were it not for the lack of consistency at the slams. Wozniacki earned another shot at an Ozeki promotion though, with a quarterfinal at the French Open or a seminal at Wimbledon enough to make the leap over the "Great hurdle" (this is what "Ozeki" means literally in Japanese).
• Finally, Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer won his 20th grand slam, therefore double-earning the title "Dai" (Great) in front of his rank category "Yokozuna" (Grand Champion). A unique achievement, at least in mens' tennis. We won't call Federerer "Dai-Dai-Yokozuna", but he becomes the #1 in our open era player ranking, ahead of Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall (we know these rankings are murky and we held out for a long time, but it's time to elevate Federer).

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2018 Australian Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y1	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y2	Andy Murray	Y
O	Marin Cilic	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
-	-	S	-	-
O	Stan Wawrinka	K1	Sam Querrey	S
S	Kevin Anderson	K2	Tomas Berdych	O
K	Kyle Edmund	K3	Chung Hyeon	K

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Venus Williams	Y	-	-
O	Karolina Pliskova	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Jelena Ostapenko (o)	S1	Garbine Muguruza (o)	O
S	Madison Keys	S2	Simona Halep	O
S	Caroline Wozniacki	S3	-	-
S	Coco Vandeweghe	K1	Sloane Stephens	S
O	Angelique Kerber	K2	Elise Mertens	K

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

Inactive Yokozuna: Serena Williams (Dai-Y), Maria Sharapova
(k): kadoban Ozeki
(o): Sekiwake-Ozeki