Eternal Serena

Serena: number 21 and going strong

Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion) Serena Williams won her 21st grand slam title today, defeating Spaniard Garbine Muguruza in two hard fought sets. With this, Serena completes a "Serena slam" - i.e., she holds all four slam titles at the same time - for the second time in her career (the first time was more than 12 years ago after the 2003 Australian Open). She is on track to win a calendar year grand slam if she wins the 2015 U.S. Open in late summer. And she is only one slam short of Steffi Graf's record of 22 open era grand slam titles.

Serena's importance for the ladies' game of the past 15 years is hard to overstate. Imagine how the game would have evolved without her: making the simplifying assumption that her losing final opponents would have won the title, her sister, the inactive Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) Venus Williams would have 12 slams (instead of 7) and be a Dai-Yokozuna. Co-Yokozuna Maria Sharapova would have 8 titles and scratching on Dai (great) status. Ex-Ozeki (=Champion) Victoria Azarenka would have 4 slams and be a Yokozuna. The Yokozuna Justine Henin, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport would all have one title more. And, maybe most importantly, there would be 7 (!) additional slam champions: Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Lucie Safarova, and Garbine Muguruza. All these were stopped by only Serena on the way to grand slam glory.

Maria Sharapova played one of her best Wimbledon tournaments in years, but was without a chance in the semis against Serena. After the two Yokozuna, there is now a gaping hole - there is not a single Ozeki. The 2014-wonders Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard both crashed again out early and get demoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I), while Muguruza gets a first-time promotion to Sekiwake, falling one win (i.e., the final) short of Ozeki. The fourth Sekiwake is French Open semifinalist Timea Baczinsky, who confirmed her strong form with a quarterfinal at Wimbledon.

Garbine Muguruza

The Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) ranks will be filled with Lucie Safarova, who could not quite confirm her strong performance at Roland Garros and hence loses Sekiwake rank, ex-Sekiwake Agnieszka Radwanska, who made her first grand slam semifinal since the 2014 Australian Open, and Madison Keys, who returns to Komusubi rank after reaching her second grand slam quaterfinal. Victoria Azarenka gave Serena the arguably toughest match in the quarterfinals and seems firmly on the comeback trail after her injury of last year, but doesn't have the results yet for a return to the sanyaku (=championship) ranks.

Despite Serena's dominance, the number and density of quality players lining up behind her is impressive. Sharapova, Azarenka, Muguruza, ex-Ozeki Petra Kvitova, Halep, Bouchard - they all seem capable of winning a slam with authority, provided Serena is not at her best. And with Keys or Swiss Belinda Bencic, exciting talent is moving up. The low into which ladies' tennis slipped in the second half of the 2000s - at the same time when mens' tennis reached arguably and all-time high - is behind us. Ladies' tennis is in good shape.

The ladies' sanyaku ranks going into the 2015 US Open 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	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Eugenie Bouchard	S1	Simona Halep	O
S	Garbine Muguruza	S2	Timea Baczinsky	S
S	Lucie Safarova	K1	Agnieszka Radwanska	S
K	Madison Keys	K2	-	-

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