The 2025 Australian Open: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2025 Australian Open Champions:

• Jannik Sinner (Ozeki)

• Madison Keys (Maegashira, ex-Ozeki)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Jannik Sinner, the 19th Male Yokozuna of the Open Era

• Paula Badosa, the 58th Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Jannik Sinner	Yokozuna	Ozeki
Paula Badosa	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Ben Shelton	Komusubi	Maegashira
Tommy Paul	Komusubi	Maegashira
Elina Svitolina (ex-Sekiwake)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Barbora Krejcikova	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Jasmine Paolini	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Taylor Fritz	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Marketa Venodrousova (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Jessica Pegula	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Jack Draper	Maegashira	Komusubi
Elina Rybakina (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Karolina Muchova (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi

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

• Madison Keys for beating Yokozuna Iga Swiatek in the semifinals

Other noteworthy developments:

• Jannik Sinner defended his Australian Open title and became the 19th male Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) of the Open Era. Please see the separate article.

• By contast, Ozeki (=Champion) Aryna Sabalenka fell again one win short of elevation to the highest rank, by losing the final to former Ozeki Madison Keys. Sabalenka remains on a Yokozuna run though and needs a final participation at the 2025 French Open for the ultimate promotion. For now she remains at Ozeki, as does the unsuccesful men's finalist, Alexander Zverev (who, different from Sabalenka, is not on a Yokozuna run though).

• Ozeki Daniil Medvedev lost early and goes kadoban - he needs to reach the quarterfinals at the French Open to avoid demotion. Barbora Krejcikova and Jasmine Krejcikova were already kadoban, and as they failed again to reach the quarterfinals, they get demoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I). Rank protection isn't fully extinguished though: both can regain Ozeki rank if they make the semifinals at the French Open. Ex-Ozeki Cori Gauff was in that very situation here at the Australian Open, but fell one win short. Exit in the quarterfinals means Gauff defends Sekiwake rank though.

• Keys is a career-high Ozeki already, as she held that rank in 2018/19. She does not return to Ozeki though, as this is only her first grand slam title. Keys would need a quarterfinal at the French Open to ascend again to her former rank.

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2025 Australian Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Carlos Alcaraz	Y
Y	Jannik Sinner	Y2	-	-
O	Alexander Zverev	O	Daniil Medvedev (k)	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	-	S	-	-
S	Taylor Fritz	K1	Alex de Minaur	K
K	Ben Shelton	K2	Tommy Paul	K

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Iga Swiatek	Y	-	-
O	Aryna Sabalenka	O	-	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Barbora Krejcikova (o)	S1	Jasmine Paolini (o)	O
O	Cori Gauff	S2	Emma Navarro	S
O	Madison Keys	S3	Paula Badosa	S
O	Marketa Vondrousova	K1	Jessica Pegula	S
S	Elina Svitolina	K2	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
Inactive Yokozuna: Naomi Osaka
(k): kadoban
(o): Sekiwake-Ozeki

Jannik Sinner, Yokozuna

Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner became the 19th male Yokozuna (= Grand Champion) of the open era today, by winning the 2024 US Open and the 2025 Australian Open back-to-back. He joins a small elite group of players who have dominated the men's game in the past 57 years. 

Sinner looked dominant indeed throughout the tournament, winning almost all his matches in straight sets with his powerful, accurate and variable baseline game to which his opponents found no answer. In the final, the seasoned and strong Ozeki (=Champion) Alexander Zverev failed to carve out even a single break point - even though Zverev played many brilliant exchanges, but they were needed to just stay in the match. The only time Sinner looked somewhat vulnerable was in round 4 against former Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) Holger Rune, and there it was arguably the hot and humid conditions more than the opponent that challenged Sinner.  

Yokozuna is a rank for life, hence Sinner can no longer be demoted. He can only be declared inactive if he fails to produce sufficiently strong results. 

Yokozuna promotions are rare: on average, there is one only every three years. In the past 20 years they had been even rarer: between 1995 and 2024, only the "big four"  Roger Federer (2004), Rafael Nadal (2008), Novak Djokovic (2011) and Andy Murray (2016) ascended to the highest rank. Now there have been two Yokozuna promotions in quick succession: Carlos Alcaraz after the 2024 Wimbledon tournament, and Sinner. 

This signals not only a new era, it also means that the Yokozuna rank seems to have jumped a tennis generation: the one remaining player of the "great four" era, Novak Djokovic, is 37 years sold, Sinner is 23, Alcaraz 21. Between them lies a generation of great players who saw their path to the highest rank blocked, including the career-high Ozeki Dominic Thiem (31 years), Daniil Medvedev (28), Matteo Berrettini (28), Zverev (27), Casper Ruud (26) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (26).  

In the ladies' game, long-standing Ozeki Aryna Sabalenka fell again one win short of a Yokozuna promotion, losing the Australian Open final against former Ozeki Madison Keys. Sabalenka remains on a Yokozuna run though and now needs to reach the final at the 2025 French Open to make it to the highest rank.

Full updates to follow shortly.