The 2020 French Open: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2020 French Open Champions:

• Rafael Nadal (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Iga Swiatek (Maegashira)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Sofia Kenin, the 42nd Female Ozeki of the Open Era

• Pablo Carreno Busta, the 76th Male Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Iga Swiatek, the 50th Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Andrey Rublev, the 91st Male Komusubi of the Open Era

• Natalia Podoroska, the 70th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Sofia Kenin	Ozeki	Komusubi
Pablo Carreno Busta	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Iga Swiatek	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Stefanos Tsitsipas	Komusubi	Maegashira
Diego Schwartzman	Komusubi	Maegashira
Andrey Rublev	Komusubi	Maegashira
Petra Kvitova (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Natalia Podoroska	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Simona Halep	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Ashleigh Barty	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Danil Medvedev	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Viktoria Azarenka (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Garbine Muguruza (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Jennifer Brady	Maegashira	Komusubi
Elise Mertens	Maegashira	Komusubi

Kinboshi:
("gold star" - prize awarded to a non-sanyaku ranked competitor for beating an active Yokozuna): none

Other noteworthy developments:

• Due to the Covid-pandemic, the French Open were the last (rather than the 2nd) grand slam tournament to be played in 2020.

• Dai-Yokozuna Rafael Nadal won his 20st grand slam title, equalling Roger Federer's record, and his 13th title at the French Open - a lonely record. As a result, Nadal moves to #2 in the merit-based open era ranking: we placed Federer ahead of Rod Laver when he won his 20th grand slam title, hence we do the same now with Nadal. Given Federer's deeper record in terms of grand slam final and semifinal participations, Nadal would arguably need 22 titles though to move to the #1 spot.

• Ozeki Alexander Zverev lost before the quarterfinals (in the 4th round) and hence goes kadoban - he must reach the quarterfinals at the next grand slam tournament (presumably the Australian Open) to defend Ozeki rank. Dominic Thiem, by contrast, secured Ozeki rank for at least another two grand slam tournaments with a quarterfinal particpation.

• Simona Halep and Ashleigh Barty both get demoted from Ozeki to Sekiwake, but have a one-time chance to restore Ozeki rank with a semifinal participation at the next slam.

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2020 French Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Rafael Nadal	Y1	Novak Djokovic	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y2	-	-
O	Dominic Thiem	O	Alexander Zverev (k)	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Pablo Carreno Busta	S	-	-
S	Danil Medvedev	K1	Stefanos Tsitsipas	K
K	Diego Schwartzman	K2	Andrey Rublev	K

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Naomi Osaka	Y
O	Sofia Kenin	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Simona Halep (o)	S1	Ashleigh Barty (o)	O
S	Iga Swiatek	S2	-	-
O	Viktoria Azarenka	K1	Petra Kvitova	O
K	Natalia Podoroska	K2	-	-

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

Sofia Kenin, Ozeki

Sofia Kenin

Sofia Kenin became the 42nd female Ozeki (=Champion) of the Open Era yesterday night by reaching the semifinal of the 2020 French Open. Together with winning the 2020 Australian Open, this suffices to clear the ‘big hurdle’ (the meaning of ‘Ozeki’ in Japanese). Kenin is not on a Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) run though, as her strong results at the Australian and French Open were interrupted by an early exit (4th round) at the US Open (which preceded the French Open this year).

Normally Ozeki promotions are rare, on average there is one every 1.5-2 years. The recent promotions by Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev were the first in the mens' game since 2014. 

In the ladies' game, however, there have been no less than ten Ozeki promotions since 2014: Eugenie Bouchard, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova, Jelena Ostapenko, Garbine Muguruza, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Ashleigh Barty, and now Sofia Kenin (Naomi Osaka bypassed Ozeki and went straight to Yokozuna). 

Of these, only Halep, Kerber, Muguruza, and maybe Stephens have put together Ozeki-type career records to date; the others have yet to fully live up to the original promise. The ladies' game remains in flux, but the talented Kenin may turn out to be an element of stability in the years ahead.

The sanyaku lists will be updated at the end of the tournament.