Jannik Sinner, Ozeki

Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner became the 39th male Ozeki of the open era by winning  the 2024 Australian Open. Together with his semi-final participation at the 2023, Wimbledon tournament this suffices to cross the "great hurdle" - the meaning of "Ozeki"  in Japanese. 

Sinner's rise has been in the making for years, but only in the past 6 months or so did he bring himself on a level where he can challenge the very best. On his path to victory, Sinner defeated both Dai-Yokozuna (=Great Grand Champion) and Australian Open dominator Novak Djokovic in the semifinal and fellow Ozeki Daniil Medvedev in the final - nobody could say that Sinner has not earned this. 

Sinner's success may also signal that a new generation has arrived in men's tennis. Thus far much talk has been about the "next generation" player - the players that first sought to unseat the old guard of super-champions (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka) and that are now in the second half of their twenties. Medvedev is the most consistent player in this group, it also includes the ex-Ozeki Alexander Zverev (semi-finalist here and currently ranked at Sekiwake), Stefanos Tsitsipas, or Matteo Berrettini. With hindsight, this group hasn't quite succeeded: Nadal and (more often) Djokovic still stood in the way of these players' ambitions, hence they have  won only one grand slam title thus far - Medvedev at the 2021 US Open.

Now there is the next-next generation: Sinner, fellow Ozeki Carlos Alcaraz (who this time exited in the quarterfinals), maybe ex-Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) Holger Rune, all players in their early 20s with an aggressive, variable all-round game that is almost free of flaws and works on any surface. Importantly, Sinner and Alcaraz appear capable of beating the old master Djokovic on a fairly regular basis. Hence, the 2024 Australian Open are already the 3rd grand slam title for this group. 

The sanyaku rankings will be updated in the next post.