Promotions and Demotions following the 2015 US Open

Of note:

• Yokozuna (Grand Champion) Novak Djokovic has been awarded the title Dai-Yokozuna (Great Grand Champion), following the win of his 10th grand slam title (not reflected in the table below, as formally the elevation to Dai-Yokozuna is not a promotion).
• Venus Williams reactivates her Yokozuna status after reaching the second Grand Slam quarterfinal within 12 months (not reflected below, as the switch of status from inactive to active is not a promotion).
• Rafael Nadal needs to reach the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, otherwise his Yokozuna status switches to inactive.
• Semifinalist Simona Halep earns an immediate re-promotion to Ozeki (Champion) - making use of the Ozeki rank protection rule - following the loss of Ozeki status at Wimbledon.
• Richard Gasquet earns a first-time promotion to Sekiwake (Junior Champion I) - more than eight (!) years after he was first promoted to Komusubi (Junior Champion II).
• Ladies' finalist Roberta Vinci earns a first-time promotion into the sanyaku (championship) ranks and goes straight to Sekiwake, where she joins her final opponent, fellow Italian and US 2015 Champion Flavia Pennetta.

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Simona Halep	Ozeki	Sekiwake
Richard Gasquet	Sekiwake*	Komusubi
Flavia Pennetta	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Roberta Vinci	Sekiwake*	Maegashira
Jo Wilfried Tsonga (ex-Sekiwake)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Viktoria Azarenka (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Eugenie Bouchard (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Garbine Muguruza	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Timea Baczinsky	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Kei Nishikori (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Lucie Safarova (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Agnieszka Radwanska (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Madison Keys	Maegashira	Komusubi

* New career high

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

• Fabio Fognini - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Rafael Nadal in the third round
• Roberta Vinci - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams in the semifinal

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2015 US Open

The banzuke line-up going into the 2016 Australian Open is as follows:

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y1	Roger Federer	Dai-Y
Dai-Y	Rafael Nadal	Y2	-	-
O	Stan Wawrinka	O	Andy Murray*	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Marin Cilic	S	Richard Gasquet	S
S	Jo Wilfried Tsonga	K	-	-

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y1	Venus Williams	Y
Y	Maria Sharapova	Y2	-	-
O	Simona Halep	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Flavia Pennetta	S	Roberta Vinci	S
O	Eugenie Bouchard	K1	Garbine Muguruza	S
S	Timea Baczinksy	K2	Viktoria Azarenka	O

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

Novak Djokovic, Dai-Yokozuna

Novak Djokovic won the 10th grand slam title of his career tonight, and thus obtains the title Dai-Yokozuna - Great Grand Champion. He joins a small elite club that, other than him, includes only Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal.

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