With apologies for the delay (I've been traveling), below is the Sanyaku (=Championship) rank update after Wimbledon 2010.In the men's tournament, Rafael Nadal once gain lived up to his Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) rank by winning his second Wimbledon title, beating Tomas Berdych ins straight sets. With eight Grand Slam titles, Nadal is gradually edging up to Dai-Yokozuna (=Great Grand Champion) status, a title that typically awareded after the 10th Grand Slam victory. The open era has thus far produced five Dai-Yokozuna, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, and of course Nadal's fellow Yokozuna Roger Federer.
Federer again exited in the quarterfinals, as in Roland Garros, losing to Tomas Berdych. Berdych secured a rare Ozeki (=Champion) promotion with his back-to-back strong results at Roland Garros (semifinal) and Wimbledon (final)--a player who has been know to be dangerous for years, but thus far had not managed to put consistent strong performances together.
Berdych is only the 29th Ozeki of the open era, joining a group that contains legends like Guillermo Vilas, Arthur Ashe or Ilie Nastase. In the post-Wimbledon sanyaku line-up, Berdych will join his semifinal opponent Novak Djokovic at this rank. Djokovic has been Ozeki for almost three years.By contrast to Berdych, Robin Soderling and Andy Murray both fell just one victory short to be take the great hurdel to the senior sanyaku ranks themselves. Murray has been in this spot for some time now, he now needs to make the US Open final to make it to Ozeki. Murray certainly possesses Ozeki-quality, what he has lacked to date is the consistency to put strong Grand Slam tournaments together back-to-back.
In the ladies' game, Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams continues to reign supreme, winning the final in straight sets over newly promoted Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) Vera Zvonareva. Her sister and fellow Yokozuna Venus Williams--long considered a Wimbledon specialist--exited in the quarterfinals, and is hanging on to active Yokozuna status by the edge of her teeth: she wil needsa quarterfinal at the upcoming US or Australian Open to still join Serena and Justine Henin at the top of the banzuke (=sanyaku line-up). Ozeki Elena Dementieva sat out Wimbledon with an injury, while Kim Clijsters fell just one victory short of regaining Ozeki status, losing in the quarterfinals to Zvonareva.
Surprise semifinalists Petra Kvitova and Tsvetana Pironkova secured first-time Sanyaku promotions to Komusubi (=Junior Champion II). There are no less than five female Komusubi, including Roland Garros finalists Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur, who both exited in the first round on the grass of the All-England Club.
| Career rank 1/ | East | Current Rank | West | Career rank 1/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks) | ||||||
| Y | Rafael Nadal | Y | Roger Federer | Y | ||
| O | Novak Djokovic | O | Tomas Berdych | O | ||
| Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks) | ||||||
| S | Robin Soderling | S | Andy Murray | S | ||
| O | Juan Martin del Potro | K | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | S | ||
| Career rank 1/ | East | Current Rank | West | Career rank 1/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks) | ||||||
| Y | Serena Williams | Y1 | Venus Williams | Y | ||
| Y | Justine Henin | Y2 | - | - | ||
| O | Elena Dementieva* | O | - | - | ||
| Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks) | ||||||
| O | Kim Clijsters | S | Vera Zvonareva | S | ||
| S | Francesca Schiavone | K1 | Samantha Stosur | S | ||
| S | Na Li | K2 | Caroline Wozniacki | S | ||
| K | Petra Kvitova | K3 | Tsvetana Pironkova | K | ||
* Kadoban
