Promotions and Demotions Following the 2015 Wimbledon Tournament

With two Yokozuna (=Grand Champions) playing the mens' final, all promotion and demotion decisions have already been taken. There are many more demotions than promotions, as all Yokozuna (who hold rank for life) bar Rafael Nadal and the mens' Ozeki (=Champions, i.e. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka) did well - leaving little to gain for the other players.

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Timea Baczinsky	Sekiwake*	Komusubi
Garbine Muguruza	Sekiwake*	Maegashira
Richard Gasquet	Komusubi	Maegashira
Agnieszka Radwanska (ex-Sekiwake)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Madison Keys	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Eugenie Bouchard	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Simona Halep	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Lucie Safarova	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Kei Nishikori	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Tomas Berdych (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
David Ferrer (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Petra Kvitova (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Ana Ivanovic (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Elena Makarova (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi

* New career high

Eternal Serena

Serena: number 21 and going strong

Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion) Serena Williams won her 21st grand slam title today, defeating Spaniard Garbine Muguruza in two hard fought sets. With this, Serena completes a "Serena slam" - i.e., she holds all four slam titles at the same time - for the second time in her career (the first time was more than 12 years ago after the 2003 Australian Open). She is on track to win a calendar year grand slam if she wins the 2015 U.S. Open in late summer. And she is only one slam short of Steffi Graf's record of 22 open era grand slam titles.

Serena's importance for the ladies' game of the past 15 years is hard to overstate. Imagine how the game would have evolved without her: making the simplifying assumption that her losing final opponents would have won the title, her sister, the inactive Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) Venus Williams would have 12 slams (instead of 7) and be a Dai-Yokozuna. Co-Yokozuna Maria Sharapova would have 8 titles and scratching on Dai (great) status. Ex-Ozeki (=Champion) Victoria Azarenka would have 4 slams and be a Yokozuna. The Yokozuna Justine Henin, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport would all have one title more. And, maybe most importantly, there would be 7 (!) additional slam champions: Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Lucie Safarova, and Garbine Muguruza. All these were stopped by only Serena on the way to grand slam glory.

Maria Sharapova played one of her best Wimbledon tournaments in years, but was without a chance in the semis against Serena. After the two Yokozuna, there is now a gaping hole - there is not a single Ozeki. The 2014-wonders Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard both crashed again out early and get demoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I), while Muguruza gets a first-time promotion to Sekiwake, falling one win (i.e., the final) short of Ozeki. The fourth Sekiwake is French Open semifinalist Timea Baczinsky, who confirmed her strong form with a quarterfinal at Wimbledon.

Garbine Muguruza

The Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) ranks will be filled with Lucie Safarova, who could not quite confirm her strong performance at Roland Garros and hence loses Sekiwake rank, ex-Sekiwake Agnieszka Radwanska, who made her first grand slam semifinal since the 2014 Australian Open, and Madison Keys, who returns to Komusubi rank after reaching her second grand slam quaterfinal. Victoria Azarenka gave Serena the arguably toughest match in the quarterfinals and seems firmly on the comeback trail after her injury of last year, but doesn't have the results yet for a return to the sanyaku (=championship) ranks.

Despite Serena's dominance, the number and density of quality players lining up behind her is impressive. Sharapova, Azarenka, Muguruza, ex-Ozeki Petra Kvitova, Halep, Bouchard - they all seem capable of winning a slam with authority, provided Serena is not at her best. And with Keys or Swiss Belinda Bencic, exciting talent is moving up. The low into which ladies' tennis slipped in the second half of the 2000s - at the same time when mens' tennis reached arguably and all-time high - is behind us. Ladies' tennis is in good shape.

The ladies' sanyaku ranks going into the 2015 US Open are therefore as follows:

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Maria Sharapova	Y
-	-	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Eugenie Bouchard	S1	Simona Halep	O
S	Garbine Muguruza	S2	Timea Baczinsky	S
S	Lucie Safarova	K1	Agnieszka Radwanska	S
K	Madison Keys	K2	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career

Stan #2 and Serena # 20 - the 2015 French Open in Short

Men's tournament:

Stan #2

Ozeki (=champion) Stanislas Wawrinka wins his second slam, denying Yokozuna (=grand champion) Novak Djokovic his first title at Roland Garros and his 9th grand slam title. Whether Djokovic will make it to 10 slams - the hurdle to be considered a Dai-Yokozuna (=great grand champion) looks again more questionable. Djokovic finally beat Dai-Yokozuna Rafael Nadal at the French Open - in the quarterfinals - only to find out that there is a new dominator. Wawrinka defeated compatriot and Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.

Andy Murray holds Ozeki for the 17th (!) time with another strong tournament. By contrast, Marin Cilic loses Ozeki rank almost as rapidly as he attained it.

Sekiwake (=junior champion I) Kei Nishikori misses out on an Ozeki promotion by one match. He would now have to reach the final at Wimbledon - looks unlikely. Semi-finalist and ex-Sekiwake Jo-Wilfried Tsonga returns to the sanykau (championship) ranks as a Komusubi (=junior champion II).

Women's tournament:

Serena #20

Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams won her 20st slam title - on her least favorite surface and seemingly ill during the course of the tournament. Nothing seems to be able to stop her, she may soon overtake Margaret Court and Steffi Graf as regards the number of slams won.

Finalist Lucie Safarova played a courageous tournament and gets promoted to Sekiwake - she was Komusubi after last year's semifinal at Wimbledon. If Safarova can repeat this feat she will be Ozeki. Swiss semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky earns a first ever promotion into the sanyaku ranks as Komusubi. She will be joined at this rank by former Ozeki Ana Ivanovic, who reached her first grand slam semifinal in 7 years.

The sanyaku ranks going into the 2015 Wimbledon tournament are as follows:

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y2	-	-
O	Stanislas Wawrinka	O	Andy Murray	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Kei Nishikori	S	Marin Cilic	O
O	Tomas Berdych	K1	David Ferrer	O
S	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	K2	-	-

 

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Maria Sharapova	Y
O	Eugenie Bouchard*	O	Simona Halep*	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Lucie Safarova	S	-	-
O	Petra Kvitova	K1	Ekaterina Makarova	S
O	Ana Ivanovic	K2	Timea Bacsinszky	K

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
* kadoban

Promotions and demotions:

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Lucie Safarova	Sekiwake*	Maegashira
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (ex-Sekiwake)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Ana Ivanovic (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Timea Bacsinzky	Komusubi*	Maegashira
Demotions
Marin Cilic	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Tomas Berdych (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Petra Kvitova (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Ekaterina Makarova	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Milos Raonic (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Nick Kyrgios	Maegashira	Komusubi
Viktoria Azarenka (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Caroline Wozniacki (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Madison Keys	Maegashira	Komusubi

* New career high

Mr. Australian Open

Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) Novak Djokovic won his favorite grand slam tournament - the Australian Open - for the 5th time last night, and for the third time in what seems to be his favorite final opponent - Ozeki (=Champion) Andy Murray. The match was competitive for two and a half sets, then Murray seemed to lose it and Djokovic took over.

Djokovic has a total of 8 grand slam titles how, and career statistics that resemble those of Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, or Andre Agassi - some of the most acomplished Yokozuna. Two more titles and Djokovic would be granted the title of Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion); the third player of his generation after Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. With age seemingly getting the better of Federer, and Nadal struggling much of the time with injuries, this seems a quite plausible prospect.

And Murray? He is already one of the most accomplished and consistent Ozeki of the open era, second only to the magnificent Guillermo Vilas and perhaps Arthur Ashe. Had he won the 2015 Australian Open, one could have seen a path to Yokozuna for him - perhaps not under the two-consecutive-grand-slam title rule, which requires a degree of dominance that is hard to achieve when competing with three of the greatest players of all time; but under the five-grand-slam-titles-overall rule that got champions like John Newcombe, Stefan Edberg, or more recently Maria Sharapova at the ladies to Yokozuna. But also this prospect seems remote now, with Murray turning 28 this year and "only" two slam titles under his belt thus far. Perhaps he will enter yokozunatennis history as a great Ozeki rather than an average Yokozuna.

Talking about Ozeki, defending Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka held rank for the fourth consecutive tournament, showing the type of consistency befitting for an Ozeki. In the semifinals he gave Djokovic his longest match of the tournament - although not quite living up to the quality of their encounters in previous years. US-Open champion Marin Cilic missed the tournament and goes kadoban immediately, i.e. he has to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros to defend rank.

Ex-Ozeki Tomas Berdych reached another grand slam semifinal - losing to Murray - and moves back up to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I). US Open finalist Kei Nishikori held Sekiwake rank with a quarterfinal participation, but missed clearing the Ozeki-hurdle by one win, being overwhelmed by Wawrinka.

Ex-Sekiwake Milos Raonic held Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) rank. He will be joined by ex-Ozeki David Ferrer, who, after another early exit, drops down from Sekiwake, and young and exiting prospect Nick Kyrgios. Kyrgios, playing in front of his home crowd, reached his second grand slam quarterfinal within three tournaments. While three out of the first four male Yokozuna open era were Australian - Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe - it has been almost 15 years since the last Australian man entered the sanyaku (=championship ranks) - Lleyton Hewitt in 2000 (who later made it to Ozeki). Kyrgios is the 83rd male Komusubi of the open era.

With this, the sanyaku ranks going into the 2015 French Open are as follows:

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Roger Federer	Y2	-	-
O	Andy Murray	O1	Stanislas Wawrinka	O
O	Marin Cilic*	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Kei Nishikori	S	Tomas Berdych	O
S	Milos Raonic	K1	David Ferrer	O
K	Nick Kyrgios	K2	-	-

* Kadoban

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career

Ladies' Grand Slam Tournaments are Simple Events...

... where 128 women chase a small ball, and in the end Serena always wins.

The Australian Open 2015 confirmed once more: when Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion) Serena Williams is fit and focused, she is near-impossible to beat. Williams struggled in the early rounds against prospects like Elina Svitolina and Garbine Muguruza. She fought as much with what seemed a bad cold as with her opponents. Fellow Yokozuna Maria Sharapova put up a trademark fight in the final. No matter, in the end the winner was again Serena, winning the 19th grand slam tournament of her career. Serena has now won more than one-third of all grand slam tournaments since the 2002 French Open (18 out of 52), and more than half since Wimbledon 2012 (6 out of 11). Not since the days of Steffi Graf 20 years ago has a  female player been that dominant.

The stats of the Serena-Sharapova final reveal a key source of Serena Williams' superiority: her first serve. Its power, speed and precision is without equal in the ladies' game, and grants her many free points. Serena out-aced Sharapova - who has a good serve herself - 18-5, which accounts for more than the total points difference in the match (76-64). On second serve, Sharapova actually beat Williams 14-9, but on first serve Serena outscored Sharapova 37-28.

Elsewhere in the tournament, the Ozeki (=Champions) Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep held rank, although for both the tournament was arguably a mild disappointment, with relatively clear losses in the quarterfinals. Serena's sister Venus reached her first grand slam quarterfinal since 2010. Another quarterfinal in the next three slams and she will reactiviate her - currently dormant - Yokozuna status.


Madison Keys, Komusubi

Petra Kvitova failed to back up her Wimbledon 2014 triumph for the second slam running and gets demoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I). She will share the rank with Ekaterina Makarova, who confirmed her consistently good form by reaching her third grand slam quarter- and second semi-final in succession. Another semifinal at the French Open and Makarova will surge to Ozeki.

The Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) ranks will be filled with ex-Ozeki Viktoria Azarenka, who is fighting back from injury, ex-Sekiwake Caroline Wozniacki, and - the discovery of the tournament - US-prospect Madison Keys. The hard-hitting Keys defeated Kvitova in round three and gave Serena Williams, for one set, a scare in the semifinal. This earns Keys a first-time sanyaku (=championship) promotion: she is the 60th female Komusubi of the open era.

The ladies' sanyaku ranks going into the 2015 French Open are therefore as follows:

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Maria Sharapova	Y
O	Eugenie Bouchard	O	Simona Halep	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Petra Kvitova	S	Ekaterina Makarova	S
O	Viktoria Azarenka	K1	Caroline Wozniacki	S
K	Madison Keys	K2	-	-

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career

Promotions and Demotions Following the 2015 Australian Open

The finals of the Australian Open are not yet played - and what finals promise these to be, with a Yokozuna/Ozeki (Djokovic/Murray) matchup in the mens' tournament, and two Yokozunas (Serena Williams, Sharapova) competing for the ladies' title.

But promotions and demotions have already been determined. With the top players dominating the tournament, there are many more demotions than promotions.

Ekaterina Makarova, Sekiwake

There are no promotions into the higher sanyaku (=championship) ranks. Quarterfinalists Kei Nishikori and Ekaterina Makarova (picture) both fell one win short of clearing the "great hurdle" to Ozeki (=Champion) and stay at Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I). Fellow quarterfinalist Venus Williams fell one win short of re-activiating her long dormant Yokozuna (=Grand Champion) status - another quarterfinal at one of the next three slams would be enough. 

All active Yokozuna stay active - the Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champions) Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams as well as the "normal" Yokozuna Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova. Nadal needs to get to the quarterfinals at the French Open, however, to avoid that his Yokozuna status switches to dormant.

Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Eugenie Bouchard, and Simona Halep all hold rank at Ozeki, as all made the quarterfinals or better. Freshly baken Ozeki Marin Cilic missed the Australian Open and goes kadoban (has to reach the quarterfinals at the French Open to avoid demotion).

Petra Kvitova gets demoted to Sekiwake, after failing to back up her success at Wimbledon 2014 in the next two grand slams.

Nick Kyrgios, Komusubi

Semifinalist and Ex-Ozeki Tomas Berdych raises back up to Sekiwake (from Komusubi).

Two-time quarterfinalist Nick Kyrgios and semifinalist Madison Keys get first-time promotions into the sanyakyu ranks at Komusubi (=Junior Champion II). Quarterfinalist and ex-Sekiwake Milos Raonic holds rank at Komusubi.

Ex-Ozeki David Ferrer and Viktoria Azarenka both get demoted from Sekiwake to Komusubi after losing in round 4, as does Caroline Wozniacki. Gael Monfils, Shuai Peng, Sara Errani (ex-Sekiwake) and Na Li (retired ex-ozeki) drop out of the sanyaku ranks.

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Tomas Berdych (ex-Ozeki)	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Nick Kyrgios	Komusubi*	Maegashira
Madison Keys	Komusubi*	Maegashira
Demotions
Petra Kvitova	Sekiwake	Ozeki
David Ferrer (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Viktoria Azarenka (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Caroline Wozniacki	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Gael Monfils	Maegashira	Komusubi
Li Na (ex-Ozeki, retired)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Sara Errani (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Shuai Peng	Maegashira	Komusubi

* New career high