Serena Joins the Legends amid an Ozeki Massacre

Dai-Yokozuna (great Grand Champion) Serena Williams added an 18th grand slam title to her career by dispatching Caroline Wozniacki without much ado in the final of the 2014 US Open. Serena - who had failed to reach the grand slam quarterfinal at the last three occasions, and thus had to make at least the seminfinal at Flushing Meadow to remain an active Yokozuna - cruised through the field, with no opponent winning more than 3 games in any set Serena played.

With 18 major titles, Serena has pulled even with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. We keep her behind these legends in the open era ranking for now, as Navratilova and, especially, Evert did not always play the Australian Open, in line with the standard at their time. But a couple more titles and Serena will be #3. Next in sight is Steffi Graf with 22 titles.

The other high sanyaku ranked players (senior champions) experienced a debacle. Serena's co-Yokozuna (Grand Champion) Maria Sharapova lost in round 4 to Wozniacki. Sharapova hasn't played Yokozuna type tennis since her promotion at this year's French Open, and will need to reach the semis at the 2015 Australian or French Open to remain an active Yokozuna. And the three players who had been promoted to Ozeki (Champion) at Wimbledon - up-and-coming Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep, as well as double-Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova - also lost in rounds 3 or 4, and therefore go immediately kadoban, i.e. they need a quarterfinal at the 2015 Australian Open to avoid demotion. Ex-Ozeki Viktoria Azarenka, coming back from injury, made a courageous effort to win back her erstwhile rank - a semifinal would have been nough - but fell one win short.

Finalist Wozniacki - who played a fine tournament until falling to Serena - returns to Sekiwake (Junior Champion I); a rank she has already held 5 times - last after the 2012 Australian Open. A semifinal in January in Melbourne and she would finally make it to Ozeki; a rank that her career record starts suggesting. Wozniacki shares Sekiwake rank with Azarenka and semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova, who made her sanyaku breakthrough after having been close several times before. Makarova is the 42nd female Sekiwake of the open era.

Another first-time sanyaku promotion, in this case to Komusubi (=Junior Champion 2), earned Shuai Peng. Peng is the third Chinese sanyaku-ranked player of the open era, after Na Li (career high Ozeki) and Jie Zheng (another Komusubi), and the 59th female Komusubi of the open era. The dramatic scenes of the semi-final - when Peng collapsed on a brutally hot and humid court, and was consolated by her opponent Wozniacki - will not be forgotten that quickly. Peng shares Komusubi rank with her compatriot Li, who had to sit the US Open out with an injury, and ex-Sekiwake and quarterfinalist Sara Errani.

The ladies' sanyaku ranks at the end of the 2014 grand slam season are therefore as follows:

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Maria Sharapova	Y
O	Eugenie Bouchard*	O1	Simona Halep*	O
O	Petra Kvitova*	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Viktoria Azarenka	S1	Caroline Wozniacki	S
S	Ekaterina Makarova	S2	-	-
O	Na Li	K1	Shuai Peng	K
S	Sara Errani	K2	-	-

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