Stan the Man wins a Slam - and Becomes an Ozeki

Stanislas Wawrinka is the 31st Ozeki (=Champion) of the open era. Wawrinka had the rank already secured before the Australian Open final, owing to his strong showing back-to-back at the US and down under. Thus, while for some the unfortunate back injury of final opponent and Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion) Rafael Nadal may taint somewhat Wawrinka's Australian Open title, it had no impact on his rise to Ozeki.

The promotion comes fairly late in Wawrinka's career. He had always been a competitive, tough opponent, but seemed to lack the game and nerves to persitently challenge the top echelon of mens' tennis - the occasional flash victory notwithstanding. However, in the past 24 months or so, Wawrinka developed superb consistency and accuracy with his thunderous serve, massive forehand, and flashy single-handed backhand, while adding variability to his game, making him less predictable. The development became visible to everyoneat last year's Australian Open, when Wawrinka forced Yokozuna and the eventual tournament winner Novak Djokovic into a grinding five-setter that could have gone either way. Yesterday's triumph - that included a win over Djokovic in the quarterfinals - marks the development's preliminary endpoint.

It was interesting to see how in the final's first set - when Nadal seemed still close to his best - Wawrinka coped with Nadal's unreal top-spin, a well-known killer for single-handed backhands (fellow Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer knows a story to tell about this). Wawrinka's quick feet and anticipation allowed him to often take the ball close to the baseline, early, and on the rise - before it could rise above Wawrinka's shoulder. This neutralized Nadal's spin and allowed Wawrinka to rip the ball back with a vengenace. It would have been interesting to see Nadal adapt to this had the final proceeded as normal.

Other than Wawrinka's stunner, there is little news in the mens' game. The three Yokozuna - Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic - and (existing) Ozeki - Andy Murray and David Ferrer - occupied 5 of the 8 quarterfinal spots. The other three spots were taken by Wawrinka, ex-Ozeki Tomas Berdych , and flashy up-and-comer Gregor Dimitrov in his first grand slam quarterfinal. Berdych returns to Komusubi (=Junior Champion II). Other than him, the sanyaku ranks have a gaping hole after the Yokozuna and Ozeki. The top guns don't give too many other players a chance.

The mens' sanyaku ranks going into the 2014 French Open look therefore as follows:

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Rafael Nadal	Y1	Roger Federer	Dai-Y
Y	Novak Djokovic	Y2	-	-
O	Andy Murray	O1	David Ferrer	O
O	Stanislas Wawrinka	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
-	-	S	-	-
O	Tomas Berdych	K	-	-

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