Naomi Osaka, Yokozuna

Naomi Osaka, Yokozuna

Naomi Osaka became the 18th female Yokozuna (= Grand Champion) of the open era last night, by beating resurgent ex-Ozeki (= Champion) Petra Kvitova in the final of the 2019 Australian Open in three sets.

Osaka is only the second player - after Jennifer Capriati - to jump straight from Sekiwake (Junior Champion I) to Yokozuna, achieved by winning the second grand slam title right after her maiden slam - last year's US Open. But while Capriati had a long career at the lower sanyaku ranks before breaking through to top level, Osaka came out of nowhere: she had not been in a grand slam quarterfinal before she started winning slams.

Osaka's rise from grand slam debutante to Yokozuna is also one of the fastest of the open era: she needed just 15 grand slam tournaments to climb to the top of the game - although the record is still held by Dai-Yokozuna (= Great Grand Champion) Monica Seles with 8 tournaments.

Yokozuna is - in contrast to the other sanyaku ranks (Ozeki, Sekiwake, Komusubi) - a rank for life: as her fellow Yokozuna, Osaka cannot be demoted, but only be declared 'inactive' if she fails to produce results befitting her rank in the years ahead.

A full update will follow once the men's final has been completed.

Naomi Osaka is on a Yokozuna Run

After Saturday's final, it will either be Osaka achieving a record-fast promotion to Yokozuna (= Grand Champion), or resurgent Petra Kvitova returning to Ozeki (= Champion) for the third time in her career.

A match with stakes as high as they come.

Naomi Osaka, Ozeki

Naomi Osaka became the 41st female Ozeki (=Champion) of the open era today by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2019 Australian Open, which follows on her maiden grand slam victory at the 2018 US Open (the Ozeki list will be updated once the tournament has been completed). Osaka could even make it to Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) if she wins the tournament. Moving from nowhere to Yokozuna within two slams would be a first in open era history. Osaka is also the first Japanese to reach Ozeki rank, in either the men's or the women's game.
 
Elsewhere, Dai-Yokozuna (=Great Grand Champion) Roger Federer lost active status after losing in the round of 16. Inactive Yokozuna Andy Murray lost in the first round and may retire. If it comes to this, we will pay our dues with an extra article on this page.

Further, the Australian Open turn out to be an Ozeki massacre, with Marin Cilic, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and Angelique Kerber all going out before the quarterfinals. Cilic, Stephens, Keys, and Juan Martin del Potro - who missed the Australian Open injured - go kadoban (they need to reach the quarterfinals at the 2019 French Open to defend the rank). Kerber was already kadoban and hence gets demoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) after the tournament.

Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams, by contrast, reached the quarter-finals after a thriller against ex-Ozeki Simona Halep, and remains on-track to win her 24th grand slam title - which would have her take first place from Margaret Court in our open era ranking.

The Top 20 Players of the Open Era - Update

Serena Williams, #2

The end-2018 update, which also marks the completion of the first half century of open era tennis. Active players are in bold.

Compared to the last update - made after the 2018 Australian Open, when Roger Federer won his 20st grand slam title and took the #1 spot from Rod Laver - Rafael Nadal moves from #4 to #3, Novak Djokovic from #7 to #5.

Nadal's promotion is mostly due to equivalence: when Federer hat 17 titles, we ranked him above Ken Rosewall - but below Rod Laver - too. But cross-era comparisons are necessarily fishy, especially when they involve players who had a significant chunk of their career before the open era. One could also argue for Rosewall as #3 (or #2, or, in fact, #1) who, in the early 1960s, dominated the ProTour in ways Nadal did not.

More straightforward is the comparison between Djokovic and Sampras. While both hold the same number of slams (14), Djokovic has been in more finals and semifinals, and he also won all grand slam tournaments while Sampras never won the French Open. There are solid grounds to rank Djokovic above Borg - although in Borg's era, there were de facto only three slams.

The three active Dai-Yokozuna now occupy 3 of the first 5 places, documenting the uniqueness of this era. Among other active players, Yokozuna Andy Murray is #16, career-high Ozeki Stan Wawrinka #20.

In the ladies' ranking, Ozeki Angelique Kerber enters the top 20 after winning her third grand slam title. Gabriela Sabatini has to make way. Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams remains one grand slam title away from taking the top spot from Margaret Court. Her sister Venus Williams occupies the #9 spot, fellow Yokozuna Maria Sharapova is #13.

The Top 20 of the Open Era

	Male Players	Highest Rank			Female Players	Highest Rank
1	Roger Federer	Dai-Y		1	Margaret Court	Dai-Y
2	Rod Laver	Dai-Y		2	Serena Williams	Dai-Y
3	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y		3	Steffi Graf	Dai-Y
4	Ken Rosewall	Dai-Y		4	Chris Evert	Dai-Y
5	Novak Djokovic	Dai-Y		5	Martina Navratilova	Dai-Y
6	Pete Sampras	Dai-Y		6	Billie Jean King	Dai-Y
7	Bjorn Borg	Dai-Y		7	Monica Seles	Dai-Y
8	Ivan Lendl	Y		8	Evonne Goolagong	Y
9	Jimmy Connors	Y		9	Venus Williams	Y
10	Andre Agassi	Y		10	Justine Henin	Y
11	John McEnroe	Y		11	Martina Hingis	Y
12	Mats Wilander	Y		12	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	Y
13	Stefan Edberg	Y		13	Maria Sharapova	Y
14	Boris Becker	Y		14	Hana Mandlikova	Y
15	John Newcombe	Y		15	Kim Clijsters	Y
16	Andy Murray	Y		16	Lindsay Davenport	Y
17	Jim Courier	Y		17	Jennifer Capriati	Y
18	Guillermo Vilas	O		18	Ann Haydon-Jones	O
19	Arthur Ashe	O		19	Virginia Wade	O
20	Stan Wawrinka	O		20	Angelique Kerber	O

Ray Emerson, Maria Bueno not included as most of their successes were before the open era.

Updated: September 11, 2018

The 2018 US Open: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2018 US Open Champions:

• Novak Djokovic (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Naomi Osaka (Maegashira)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• John Isner, the 75th Male Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Naomi Osaka, the 46th Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Anastasija Sevastova, the 65th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Juan Martin del Potro	Ozeki	Sekiwake
Dominic Thiem	Sekiwake	Komusubi
John Isner	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Kei Nishikori	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Naomi Osaka	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Anastasija Sevastova	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Simona Halep	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Garbine Muguruza	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Kevin Anderson	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Jelena Ostapenko (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Daria Kasatkina	Maegashira	Komusubi
Julia Görges	Maegashira	Komusubi


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

• John Milman - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer in round 4

Other noteworthy developments:

• Venus Wiliams loses active Yokozuna status, after not reaching a semifinal/two quarterfinals in the last four slams. She joins Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray as inactive Yokozuna.
• Juan Martin del Potro returns to Ozeki rank after almost 9 years, the consequence of three strong consecutive grand slam tournaments culminating in his final participation at the US Open.
• Ozeki Marin Cilic, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys all escape demotion with quarter-/semifinal participations. By contrast, Garbine Muguruza, and Simona Halep exit early for the second consecutive Grand Slam and get demoted to Sekiwake. They need a semifinal participation at the 2019 Australian Open to return to Ozeki rank. Angelique Kerber goes kadoban (needs a quarterfinal at the Australian Open to defend Ozeki rank).
• Karolina Pliskova held rank with a quarterfinal participation, but fell one win short of restoring her erstwhile Ozeki rank

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2018 US Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y2	-	-
O	Marin Cilic	O	Juan Martin del Potro	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Dominic Thiem	S1	John Isner	S
S	Kei Nishikori	S2	-	-
S	Kevin Anderson	K	-	-

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	-	-
O	Madison Keys	O1	Sloane Stephens	O
O	Angelique Kerber (k)	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Karolina Pliskova	S1	Simona Halep (o)	O
O	Garbine Muguruza (o)	S2	Naomi Osaka	S
O	Jelena Ostapenko	K	Anastasija Sevastova	K

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