Serena Closing in on the Dai-Yokozuna

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With her 9th Grand Slam title, Serena Williams is only one title away from joining the illustre group of Dai-Yokozuna, i.e. Yokozuna (Grand Champions) who have distinguised themselves even within this elite group by typically winning 10 or more titles.

In the open era only six female players have attained Dai-Yokozuna status. These are:

Female Dai-Yokozuna

			Promotion to…				GS	Grand slam achievements 1/
			Y	O	S	K	debut	Titles	Finals	Sfinals	Qfinals
1	Margaret Court	Dai-Y	F69	A69	A69	U68	(A59)	11	1	4	4
2	Billie Jean King	Dai-Y	W72	W68	W68	F68	(W 61)	8	4	5	11
3	Chris Evert	Dai-Y	W74	W73	U72	U71	U71	18	16	18	2
4	Martina Navratilova	Dai-Y	F82	F75	A75	A75	F73	18	14	12	9
5	Steffi Graf	Dai-Y	A88	W87	F87	U85	F83	22	9	6	5
6	Monica Seles	Dai-Y	F91	W90	F90	F89	F89	9	4	5	13
7 (?)	Serena Williams	Y	W02	F02	U99	U99	A98	9	3	2	10

1/ Since the beginning of the Open era.

Billie Jean King is considered a Dai-Yokozuna because of her combined pre-open era and open era career. Monica Seles is on the list as only a career-interrupting attack by a deranged man prevented her from reaching the double-digit title threshold.

As flipside of Serena's hard fought tournament victory (6-4, 7-5), runner-up Jelena Jankovic fell once again short of Ozeki promotion -- she was one win short of Ozeki level already at the 2008 French Open. Jankovic now needs to reach the semifinal at the 2009 Australian Open to attain Yokozuna tennis' second highest rank. She obtained back the Sekiwake rank, however, that she had lost after exiting early at Wimbledon. With Ana Ivanovic being demoted from Ozeki to Sekiwake, there is no female Ozeki at the current juncture.
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