The 2024 Wimbledon Tournament: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2024 Wimbledon Champions:

• Carlos Alcaraz (Ozeki)

• Barbora Krejcikova (Maegashira, ex-Sekiwake)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Carlos Alcaraz, the 18th Male Yokozuna of the Open Era

• Jasmine Paolini, the 48th Female Ozeki of the Open Era

• Barbora Krejcikova, the 49th Female Ozeki of the Open Era

• Alex de Minaur, the 98th Male Komusubi of the Open Era

• Lorenzo Musetti, the 99th Male Komusubi of the Open Era

• Donna Vekic, the 77th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Carlos Alcaraz	Yokozuna	Ozeki
Jasmine Paolini	Ozeki	Sekiwake
Barbora Krejcikova	Ozeki	Maegashira
Alex de Minaur	Komusubi	Maegashira
Taylor Fritz	Komusubi	Maegashira
Lorenzo Musetti	Komusubi	Maegashira
Donna Vekic	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Casper Ruud (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Ons Jabeur (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Qinwen Zheng (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Mirra Andreeva	Maegashira	Komusubi

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

• Yulia Putintseva for beating Yokozuna Iga Swiatek in round 3

Other noteworthy developments:

• Carlos Alcaraz won the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back and thus became the 18th male Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) of the Open Era - joining an elite group of players that have dominated the sport in the past 55 years. Alcaraz's is the first Yokozuna promotion since Andy Murray's in 2016 - see the separate article.

• Jannik Sinner's and Aryna Sabalenka's Yokozuna runs ended unsuccesfully, by contrast. Sabalenka had to sit out the tournamnet injured, while Sinner went out in the quarterfinals to fellow Ozeki (=Champion) Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev and Sinner held Ozeki rank, but Sabalenka goes kadoban: she needs to reach the quarterfinals at the 2024 US Open to defend Ozeki rank. The same holds for Alexander Zverev, Cori Gauff, and Marketa Vondrousova.

• Former Ozeki and Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina held Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) rank with a semifinal participation.

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2024 Wimbledon Tournament

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y	Carlos Alcaraz	Y
O	Daniil Medvedev	O1	Jannik Sinner	O
O	Alexander Zverev (k)	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
-	-	S	-	-
O	Casper Ruud	K1	Lorenzo Musetti	K
K	Taylor Fritz	K2	Alex de Minaur	K

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Iga Swiatek	Y	-
O	Cori Gauff (k)	O1	Aryna Sabalenka (k)	O
O	Marketa Vondrousova (k)	O2	Barbora Krejcikova	O
O	Jasmine Paolini	O3	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Elina Rybakina	S	-	-
O	Ons Jabeur	K	Donna Vekic	K

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

Carlos Alcaraz, Yokozuna

Carlos Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz became the 18th male Yokozuna (= Grand Champion) of the open era today, by winning the 2024 French Open and the 2024 Wimbledon tournament back-to-back. He joins a small elite group of players who have dominated the men's game in the past 56 years.

Alcaraz's rise is the one of the fastest in the open era: he climbed to Yokozuna in just 14 tournaments - or 3 1/2 years - since his grand slam debut at the 2021 Australian Open. To date, only Jim Courier’s ascent has been as fast. Alcaraz’s compatriot Rafael Nadal needed 20 tournaments (or 5 years) to become a Yokozuna, for example, Roger Federer 22 tournaments, Novak Djokovic 27 tournaments. Yokozuna is a rank for life, hence Alcaraz cannot be demoted. He can only be declared inactive if he fails to produce sufficiently strong results. 

Alcaraz’s is also the first male Yokozuna promotion since Andy Murray's in 2016, which makes this the second longest gap between Yokozuna promotions in open era history (the longest has been almost 10 years between Agassi’s promotion at the 1995 Australian Open and Federer’s at the US Open in 2004). This just demonstrates how much the 'big four' - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray - have held tennis in their grip in the past 20 years. Not only did they prevent anybody else to rise to the very top, they allowed also only five promotions to the second highest rank of Ozeki (=Champion) between 2003 and 2020: Juan Martin del Potro, Thomas Berdych, David Ferrer, Marin Cilic, and Stan Wawrinka. 

Federer has retired, while Murray and Nadal are plagued by injuries and also seem close to ending their careers. Only Djokovic is still going strong - but in this Wimbledon final, he stood little chance against a younger, faster and stronger Alcaraz. 

Since 2020, Ozeki rank has already become more accessible, with Dominique Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Stefanis Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Matteo Berrettini, Casper Ruud and Jannik Sinner earning Ozeki promotions in quick succession. Alcaraz is now the first ‘new gen’ Yokozuna - an unmistakable sign that the big four era has come to an end.

Barbora Krejcikova and Jasmine Paolini, Ozeki

Jasmine Paolini

Double promotion to Ozeki (=Champion) in the women'' game: Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova became the 48th and the 49th female Ozeki of the open era, by finishing first (Krejcikova) and second (Paolini) in the 2024 Wimbledon tournament. 

Paolini jumped the "big hurdle" (the literal meaning of Ozeki in Japanese) by reaching back-to-back finals at grand slam tournaments, while Krejcikova won her second grand slam title after the 2021 French Open, which grants an automatic Ozeki promotion.

Both players attain the second highest sanyaku (=championship) rank at the relatively advanced tennis player age of 28. Paolini is a genuine late starter: until one year ago, she had not been in the world's top 40, and had never gone beyond the second round at a grand slam tournament. Then this year things suddenly came together: Paolini won the Dubai championships and the Italian Open, reached the final at Roland Garros, now again at Wimbledon. A comparatively short tennis player at 1.63 m (5'4'') , the charismatic Paolini compensates a lack of natural power with speed, versatility, and exuberant energy. 

Barbora Krejcikova

Krecjikova started her tennis career as a doubles specialist: she has eight grand slam female doubles titles under her belt - all won alongside her compatriot Katerina Siniakova - and three mixed doubles titles. Since the French open victory in 2021, she has also been part of the singles elite, peaking as high as word #2 2022. Her aggressive, variable,  powerful game serves Krejcikova well on all surfaces, and her prowess around the net - arguably a consequence of her doubles experience - adds an element that has become uncommon in modern tennis. 

Krejcikova's inspiration has been her former coach, the late Jana Novotna: a former Wimbledon winner and Ozeki herself. Krejcikova has now caught up with her mentor on both counts.

Elsewhere in the ladies' game, Ozeki Aryna Sabalenka had to sit out the tournament and hence missed her chance for a Yokozuna (=grand champion) promotion.  

Alcaraz Yokozuna, Krejcikova and Paolini Ozeki

 Updates to follow asap.