Summary French Open 2013 - David Ferrer is the 30st Male Ozeki of the Open Era

Dai-Yokozuna (great Grand Champion) Rafael Nadal, playing his first grand slam tournament in almost a year, won a record 8th French Open title, once again confirming his exceptional status as a clay court player. The final against a game but overmatched David Ferrer was a relatively one-sided affair, but in the semifinal fellow Yokozuna (Grand Champion) Novak Djokovic stretched Nadal to the limit, leading already 4:2 in the fifth set before Nadal turned it around, 9:7.

Ferrer earns nonetheless a first-time promotion to Ozeki (Champion), at the fairly advanced tennis age of 31 years. His series semifinals (US Open 2012), semifinals (Australian Open 2013), final (French Open 2013) is more than enough to qualify for the game's second highest rank. Ferrer joins a club that includes members as illustre as Guillermo Vilas, Arthur Ashe, Ilie Nastase, Lleyton Hewitt, or Andy Murray.

Before this tournament, Ferrer was one of the stronger Sekiwake (Junior Champion I) of the open era, now he is one of the weaker Ozeki: one of only three whose greatest grand slam success is one lost final (the other two are Magnus Norman and Tomas Berdych). It was consistency at a very high level - assisted by a touch of luck with the draw - that got Ferrer into the high sanyaku (championship) ranks. It remains to be seen to what extent he will align his career stats with typical Ozeki standards in the years ahead.

In other results, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made it to the semifinals - dominating Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer on the way - before he fell without much ado to Ferrer. Tsonga returns to Sekiwake, for the fourth time in his career. Ex-Ozeki Tomas Berdych lost in the first round and drops to Komusubi (Junior Champion II). Several veteran ex-Sekiwake (Tommy Haas) and ex-Komusubi (Stanislaw Wawrinka, Tommy Robredo) made it to the quarterfinals, without regaining sanyaku rank, however. Ozeki Andy Murray sat out the tournament with an injury and goes kadoban (i.e., he has to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon to defend Ozeki rank).

In the ladies' game, Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams demonstrated her command of the field by winning her 16th grand slam title, and her 2nd title at the French Open. The next-strongest ladies, Ozeki Maria Sharapova and Viktoria Azarenka, could both have been promoted to Yokozuna in Paris with a tournament victory, but Sharapova lost a hard-fought although relatively clear final to Serena, 4-6, 4-6 - missing out on her 5th grand slam title - while Azarenka lost an intense three-set semifinal to Sharapova - failing to add another title back-to-back to her 2013 Australian Open championship.

Ex-Ozeki Samantha Stosur exited in round 3 and drops to Sekiwake, where she'll be joined by resurgent semi-finalist Sara Errani and quarterfinalist Agnieska Radwanska. Ex-Ozeki Petra Kvitova , Na Li and Svetlana Kuznetsova complete the sanyaku ranks as Komusubi. Kuznetsova played a remarkable quarterfinal against Serena Williams, giving the champion the arguably hardest challenge of the tournament, and appears on the comeback trail.

In summary, the sanyaku ranks line up as follows going into 2013 Wimbledon:

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Rafael Nadal	Y1	Novak Djokovic	Y
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y2	-	-
O	Andy Murray*	O	David Ferrer	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	S	-	-
O	Tomas Berdych	K	-	-

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	-	-
O	Maria Sharapova	O	Viktoria Azarenka	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Samantha Stosur	S1	Agnieszka Radwanska	S
S	Sara Errani	S2	-	-
O	Petra Kvitova	K1	Na Li	O
O	Svetlana Kuznetsova	K2	-	-

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