The 2019 French Open: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2019 French Open Champions:

• Rafael Nadal (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Ashleigh Barty (Maegashira)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Ashleigh Barty, the 41st Female Ozeki of the Open Era

• Marketa Vondrousova, the 46th Female Sekiwake of the Open Era

• Amanda Anisimova, the 67th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Ashleigh Barty	Ozeki	Maegashira
Dominic Thiem	Sekiwake	Komusubi
Marketa Vondrousova	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Johanna Konta	Komusubi	Maegashira
Amanda Anisimova	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Marin Cilic	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Juan Martin del Potro	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Karolina Pliskova (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Angelique Kerber (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Petra Kvitova (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
John Isner (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Stefanos Tsitsipas	Maegashira	Komusubi
Garbine Muguruza (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Danielle Collins	Maegashira	Komusubi


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

• Sofian Kenin - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Serena Williams in Round 3
• Katerina Siniakova - for beating Yokozuna Naomi Osaka in Round 3

Other noteworthy developments:

• Roger Federer regains active (Dai-)Yokozuna status by making the semifinals.
• Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys - both kadoban (=at risk of demotion) before the tournament - hold Ozeki rank by making the quarterfinals.
• Kei Nishikori, holds Sekiwake rank with a quarterfinal participation, ex-Ozeki and defending French Open champion Simona Halep holds Komusubi rank (with the same result).
• A banzuke curiosity: going into the 2019 Wimbledon tournament, there are no Ozeki and no Komusubi on the men's side - while there are no less than six Komusubi in the ladies' game. This attests of the relatively greater consistency of the top players in the mens' game, at this juncture.

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2019 French Open

Men

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

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Naomi Osaka	Y
O	Madison Keys	O1	Sloane Stephens	O
O	Ashleigh Barty	O2	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Marketa Vondrousova	S	-	-
O	Simona Halep	K1	Karolina Pliskova	O
O	Angelique Kerber	K2	Petra Kvitova	O
K	Amanda Anisimova	K3	Johanna Konta	K

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

Ashleigh Barty, Ozeki

Ashleigh Barty became the 41st female Ozeki (=Champion) of the open era today winning the 2019 French Open. Together with reaching the quarterfinals at the 2019 Australian Open, this suffices to clear the ‘big hurdle’ (the meaning of ‘Ozeki’ in Japanese). The Australian was thus far better known as a doubles specialist - and as a professional cricket player, a passion for which she once interrupted her tennis career - but put herself firmly on the map now as an elite singles contestant.

Her opponent in the final, Marketa Vondrousova, will be promoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion 1), and there is also a new Komusubi (=Junior Champion 2) in semi-finalist Amanda Anisimova. Both Vondrousava and Asiminova are teenagers - the face of ladies' tennis appears to be changing rapidly, even though recently crowned Yokzouna (=Grand Champion) Naomi Osaka - herself only 21 years old - exited in round 3 this time.

In the mens' game, Dai-Yokozuna (=Great Grand Champion) Rafael Nadal and Komusubi (and ex-Sekiwake) Dominik Thiem will contest the final, in a repeat of last year.

The 2019 Australian Open: Promotions, Demotions, and Other Stats

2019 Australian Open Champions:

• Novak Djokovic (Dai-Yokozuna)

• Naomi Osaka (Sekiwake)

New Career Sanyaku Rank:

• Naomi Osaka, the 18th Female Yokozuna of the Open Era

• Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 89th Male Komusubi of the Open Era

• Danielle Collins, the 66th Female Komusubi of the Open Era

Sanyaku Rank Changes

Player (career rank if different)	To	From
Promotions
Naomi Osaka	Yokozuna	Sekiwake
Petra Kvitova (ex-Ozeki)	Sekiwake	Maegashira
Stefanos Tsitsipas	Komusubi	Maegashira
Danielle Collins	Komusubi	Maegashira
Demotions
Angelique Kerber	Sekiwake	Ozeki
Dominic Thiem	Komusubi	Sekiwake
John Isner	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Simona Halep (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Garbine Muguruza (ex-Ozeki)	Komusubi	Sekiwake
Kevin Anderson (ex-Sekiwake)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Jelena Ostapenko (ex-Ozeki)	Maegashira	Komusubi
Anastasija Sevastova	Maegashira	Komusubi


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

• Stefanos Tsitsipas - for beating Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer in round 4

Other noteworthy developments:

• Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal played a pure Dai-Yokozuna final, the first since Roger Federer defeated Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final.
• Dai-Yokozuna Roger Federer loses active Yokozuna status, after not reaching a semifinal/two quarterfinals in the last four slams. He joins Andy Murray, Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova as inactive Yokozuna.
• Ozeki Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro, Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens all go kadoban after failing to reach the quarterfinals (del Potro sat out the tournament injured), and need to reach the quarterfinals at the 2019 French Open to hold rank.
• Angelique Kerber gets demoted to Sekiwake but still enjoys limited rank protection: a semifinal at the 2019 French Open would bring her back to Ozeki
• Ex-Ozeki Karolina Pliskova holds Sekiwake rank with a semifinal participation.

Sanyaku Ranks Following the 2019 Australian Open

Men

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Novak Djokovic	Y	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y
O	Marin Cilic (k)	O	Juan Martin del Potro (k)	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
S	Kei Nishikori	S	-	-
S	Dominic Thiem	K1	John Isner	S
K	Stefanos Tsitsipas	K2	-	-

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Dai-Y	Serena Williams	Y	Naomi Osaka	Y
O	Madison Keys (k)	O	Sloane Stephens (k)	O
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Karolina Pliskova	S1	Angelique Kerber (o)	O
O	Petra Kvitova	S2	-	-
O	Simona Halep	K1	Garbine Muguruza	O
K	Danielle Collins	K2	-	-

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

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.