The 2021 French Open: Promotions, Demotions and Other Stats

2021 French Open Champions:

• Novak Djokovic (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Barbora Krejcikova (Maegashira)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Stefanos Tstsipas, the 34th Male Ozeki of the Open Era

• Barbora Krejcikova, the 52nd Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 53rd Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Maria Sakkari, the 70th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

• Tamara Zidansek, the 71st Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Stefanos Tsitsipas	Ozeki	Sekiwake
Iga Swiatek	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Barbora Krejcikova	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Diego Schwartzman	Komusubi	Maegashira
Maria Sakkari	Komusubi	Maegashira
Tamora Zidansek	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Dominik Thiem	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Sofia Kenin	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Simona Halep (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Ashleigh Barty (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Jennifer Brady	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Pablo Carreno Busta (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Andrey Rublev	Maegashira	Komusubi
Aslan Karatsev	Maegashira	Komusubi
Karolina Muchova	Maegashira	Komusubi

Kinboshi:
("gold star" - prize awarded to a non-sanyaku ranked competitor for beating an active Yokozuna):

• Elena Rybakina - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams in Round 4

Other noteworthy developments:

• Dai-Yokozuna Novak Djokovic won his 19th grand slam title, eding again one win closer to Roger Federer's and Rafael Nadal's record of 20 titles.

• Roger Federer failed to reach a grand slam quarterfinal for the fourth consecutive tournament and therefore loses active Yokozuna status. He needs a semifinal at Wimbledon to return once more as an active Yokozuna

• Ex-Ozeki Domique Thiem and Sofia Kenin got demoted to Sekiwake after failing twice in a row to reach a grand slam quarterfinal. A semifinal at Wimbledon would restore Ozeki status

• Alexander Zverev held Ozeki rank with a seminfal participation. Danil Medvedev fell again one win short of jumping the "big hurdle" to Ozeki, he needs now to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon to make it to Ozeki.

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2021 French Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
O	Alexander Zverev	O	Stefanos Tsitsipas	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Danil Medvedev	S	Dominik Thiem (o)	O
K	Diego Schwartzman	K	-	-

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Naomi Osaka	Y	Serena Williams	Dai-Y
-	-	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Sofia Kenin (o)	S1	Iga Swiatek	S
S	Barbora Krejcikova	S2	Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova	S
O	Simona Halep	K1	Ashleigh Barty	O
S	Jennifer Brady	K2	Maria Sakkari	K
K	Tamara Zidansek	K3	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
Inactive Yokozuna: Roger Federer (Dai), Andy Murray, Venus Williams
(k): kadoban
(o): Sekiwake-Ozeki

Stefanos Tsitsipas, Ozeki

Stefanos Tsitispas

Stefanos Tsitsipas became the 34th male Ozeki (=Champion) of the Open Era last night by reaching the semi-finals of the 2021 French Open. Together with reaching the semifinals at the two preceding grand slam tournaments - the 2021 Australian Open and the 2020 French Open (that were held in the fall after the Covid19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the traditional spring date) - this suffices to clear the ‘big hurdle’ (the meaning of ‘Ozeki’ in Japanese). 

In his quarterfinal, Tsitsipas defeated Danil Medvedev, who had been on an Ozeki run himself. Medvedev now needs to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon to make it to the second-highest Sanyaku (champion level) rank. This was only the second victory of Tsitispas over Medvedev in eight matches on the ATP tour. In the semifinals Tsitsipas will meet co-Ozeki Alexander Zverev, who managed to hold rank.  

Dominik Thiem by contrast, will be demoted from Ozeki to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) after failing for the second time in a row to reach a grand slam quarterfinal. In the ladies' game, Ashleigh Barty will also be demoted to Sekiwake.

The Ozeki and all other Sanyaku career lists will be updated once the tournament is completed.