The Top 20 Players of the Open Era - Update

Serena Williams, #2

The end-2018 update, which also marks the completion of the first half century of open era tennis. Active players are in bold.

Compared to the last update - made after the 2018 Australian Open, when Roger Federer won his 20st grand slam title and took the #1 spot from Rod Laver - Rafael Nadal moves from #4 to #3, Novak Djokovic from #7 to #5.

Nadal's promotion is mostly due to equivalence: when Federer hat 17 titles, we ranked him above Ken Rosewall - but below Rod Laver - too. But cross-era comparisons are necessarily fishy, especially when they involve players who had a significant chunk of their career before the open era. One could also argue for Rosewall as #3 (or #2, or, in fact, #1) who, in the early 1960s, dominated the ProTour in ways Nadal did not.

More straightforward is the comparison between Djokovic and Sampras. While both hold the same number of slams (14), Djokovic has been in more finals and semifinals, and he also won all grand slam tournaments while Sampras never won the French Open. There are solid grounds to rank Djokovic above Borg - although in Borg's era, there were de facto only three slams.

The three active Dai-Yokozuna now occupy 3 of the first 5 places, documenting the uniqueness of this era. Among other active players, Yokozuna Andy Murray is #16, career-high Ozeki Stan Wawrinka #20.

In the ladies' ranking, Ozeki Angelique Kerber enters the top 20 after winning her third grand slam title. Gabriela Sabatini has to make way. Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams remains one grand slam title away from taking the top spot from Margaret Court. Her sister Venus Williams occupies the #9 spot, fellow Yokozuna Maria Sharapova is #13.

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	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y		3	Steffi Graf	Dai-Y
4	Ken Rosewall	Dai-Y		4	Chris Evert	Dai-Y
5	Novak Djokovic	Dai-Y		5	Martina Navratilova	Dai-Y
6	Pete Sampras	Dai-Y		6	Billie Jean King	Dai-Y
7	Bjorn Borg	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	Angelique Kerber	O

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

Updated: September 11, 2018

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

2018 US Open Champions:

• Novak Djokovic (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Naomi Osaka (Maegashira)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• John Isner, the 75th Male Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Naomi Osaka, the 46th Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Anastasija Sevastova, the 65th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Juan Martin del Potro	Ozeki	Sekiwake
Dominic Thiem	Sekiwake	Komusubi
John Isner	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Kei Nishikori	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Naomi Osaka	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Anastasija Sevastova	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Simona Halep	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Garbine Muguruza	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Kevin Anderson	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Jelena Ostapenko (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Daria Kasatkina	Maegashira	Komusubi
Julia Görges	Maegashira	Komusubi


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

• John Milman - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer in round 4

Other noteworthy developments:

• Venus Wiliams loses active Yokozuna status, after not reaching a semifinal/two quarterfinals in the last four slams. She joins Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray as inactive Yokozuna.
• Juan Martin del Potro returns to Ozeki rank after almost 9 years, the consequence of three strong consecutive grand slam tournaments culminating in his final participation at the US Open.
• Ozeki Marin Cilic, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys all escape demotion with quarter-/semifinal participations. By contrast, Garbine Muguruza, and Simona Halep exit early for the second consecutive Grand Slam and get demoted to Sekiwake. They need a semifinal participation at the 2019 Australian Open to return to Ozeki rank. Angelique Kerber goes kadoban (needs a quarterfinal at the Australian Open to defend Ozeki rank).
• Karolina Pliskova held rank with a quarterfinal participation, but fell one win short of restoring her erstwhile Ozeki rank

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2018 US Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y2	-	-
O	Marin Cilic	O	Juan Martin del Potro	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Dominic Thiem	S1	John Isner	S
S	Kei Nishikori	S2	-	-
S	Kevin Anderson	K	-	-

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	-	-
O	Madison Keys	O1	Sloane Stephens	O
O	Angelique Kerber (k)	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Karolina Pliskova	S1	Simona Halep (o)	O
O	Garbine Muguruza (o)	S2	Naomi Osaka	S
O	Jelena Ostapenko	K	Anastasija Sevastova	K

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
Inactive Yokozuna: Andy Murray, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova
(k): kadoban Ozeki
(o): Sekiwake-Ozeki