Friday, June 27, 2008

The Male Ozeki

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Ozeki (= Champion) is the second highest Sanyaku (= Championship) rank and attained only by players who competed at the highest level repeatedly. Most players listed below reached several Grand Slam finals and semfinals, and many won Grand Slam titles. Some Ozeki fell short by only one match from obtaining a Yokozuna promotion, these are: Stan Smith, Ilie Nastase, and Guillermo Vilas. The table entries are discussed further below.

Male Ozeki
    Promotion to… Grand slam achievements 1/  Career  GS tourn. as...
    O S  K   Titles   Finals   Sfinals   Qfinals   points   O   S/K 
                       
1 Arthur Ashe U68 U68  W68  3 2 5 5 33 15 9
2 Tony Roche W69 W68 W68 0 3 5 4 23 7 10
3 Jan Kodes F71 F70 F70 3 2 1 4 24 10 7
4 Stan Smith U71 W71 F71 2 1 2 5 20 6 9
5 Ilie Nastase U72 F71 F71 2 3 1 6 25 9 10
6 Guillermo Vilas U75 F75 F75 4 4 4 7 43 20 12
7 Roscoe Tanner A77(1) A77(1) U74 1 1 4 5 20 4 10
8 Vitas Gerulaitis A77(2) A77(2) W77 1 2 5 3 23 11 6
9 Johan Kriek A82 A81 U80 2 0 3 6 20 2 11
10 Kevin Curren W85 A84 W83 0 2 1 1 9 2 5
                       
11 Miloslav Mecir F87 U86 U86 0 2 2 3 13 8 5
12 Pat Cash W87 U84 W84 1 2 2 4 18 6 8
13 Michael Stich W91 W91 F91 1 2 3 4 20 10 8
14 Sergi Bruguera F94 F93 F93 2 1 1 0 13 2 8
15 Michael Chang F95 F89 F89 1 3 4 5 26 10 8
16 Yevgeny Kafelnikov   F96 F95 F95 2 1 3 7 24 8 14
17 Richard Krajicek W96 W96 A92 1 0 3 5 15 2 5
18 Pat Rafter U97 U97 F97 2 2 3 0 20 6 12
19 Petr Korda A98 F92 F92 1 1 0 4 11 4 4
20 Carlos Moya U98 A97 A97 1 1 1 5 14 2 7
                       
21 Gustavo Kuerten F00 F97 F97 3 0 0 5 17 6 8
22 Magnus Norman F00 F00 A00 0 1 1 1 6 2 3
23 Marat Safin A02 U00 U00 2 2 3 2 22 5 10
24 Lleyton Hewitt W02 U01 U00 2 2 4 7 29 8 14
25 Juan C. Ferrero F03 U02 F00 1 2 3 3 19 5 6
26 Andy Roddick U03 A03 A03 1 4 5 9 35 14 13
27 Juan M. Del Potro U09 F09 A09 1 1 4 7 22 4 13
28 Tomas Berdych W10 W10 F10 0 1 6 10 25 4 18
29 David Ferrer F13 A08 A07 0 1 5 11 24 6 12
30 Stanislas Wawrinka A14 A14 A11 3 1 5 9 34 15 5
                       
31 Marin Cilic U14 A10 A10 1 2 3 8 24 7 11
32 Dominic Thiem U20 F18 F16 1 3 2 2 19 3 11
33 Alexander Zverev U20 U20 A20 0 1 6 4 19 9 7
34 Stefanos Tsitsipas F21 A21 A19 0 2 4 1 15 5 9
35 Daniil Medvedev A22 U19 U19 1 5 2 1 24 4 11
36 Matteo Berrettini A22 W21 U19 0 1 2 3 10 2 6
37 Casper Ruud U22 W22 W22 0 3 0 0 9 4 3
38 Carlos Alcaraz F23 U22 F22 2 0 2 3 15 4 3
39 Jannik Sinner A24 W22 W22 1 0 1 4 10 1 3

Ozeki are a heterogenous group, including both the magnificent Guilllermo Vilas, whose career statistics would also be befitting for a Yokozuna, and Magnus Norman, who advanced only three times to a Grand Slam quarterfinal or beyond in his career. Vilas is the most accomplished Ozeki in terms of longevity (20 tournaments as an Ozeki, or 5 years), followed by Arthur Ashe, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Roddick.

January 24, 2024

2 comments:

Seneca said...

Time to edit the statement that Vilas is the most accomplished Ozeki in terms of career points.

Henry Kaspar said...

Thanks mate.