The Male Yokozuna

.
Yokozuna (= Grand Champion) is the highest Sanyaku ( = Championship) rank and attained only by players who occupied a dominant position in the sport. The players listed below all (i) won back-to-back Grand Slam titles, or (ii) achieved an equivalent result over three tournaments, such as two wins interrupted by a final or semifinal, and/or (iii) won five grand slam tournaments over the course of their careers. Dai-Yokozuna are Yokozuna who distinguised themselves even within this elite group, typically by winning 10 or more grand slam tournaments--Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall meet this criterion once the pre-open era is also considered. The table entries are discussed in detail below.

Male Yokozuna

			Promotion to…					GS	Grand slam achievements 1/
		Dai-Y	Y	O	S	K	debut	Titles	Finals	Sfinals	Qfinals
1	Rod Laver 2/	F69	F69	W68	F68	F68	(A56)	5	1	0	1
2	Ken Rosewall 2/	W71	W71	U68	F68	F68	(A50)	4	4	5	2
3	Jimmy Connors		U74	A74	A74	U73	U70	8	7	16	10
4	John Newcombe 2/		A75	U69	F69	A69	(A60)	5	2	3	8
5	Bjorn Borg	W80	F78	F75	F74	F74	F73	11	5	1	4
6	John McEnroe		U81	U80	U79	W77	F77	7	4	8	7
7	Mats Wilander		F85	A83	F82	F82	W81	7	4	3	6
8	Ivan Lendl		F86	U83	F81	F81	F78	8	11	9	6
9	Boris Becker		U89	W86	W85	W85	W84	6	4	8	5
10	Stefan Edberg		U91	A87	A85	F85	W83	6	5	8	7
11	Jim Courier		F92	W91	F91	F91	U88	4	3	4	4
12	Pete Sampras	W97	U93	U92	U90	U90	U88	14	4	5	6
13	Andre Agassi		A95	U90	U88	F88	U86	8	7	11	10
14	Roger Federer	A07	U04	A04	W03	W01	F99	20	11	15	11
15	Rafael Nadal	F11	W08	F06	F05	F05	W03	22	8	8	9
16	Novak Djokovic	U15	W11	U07	W07	F07	A05	24	12	12	10
17	Andy Murray		W16	F11	U08	U08	W05	3	8	10	9

Male Yokozuna (continued)

		Career	Grand slam tournaments as…					Tournaments between….
		points	Syk	Y(a)	O	S	K	D and Y	D and K	K and O	O and Y
1	Rod Laver 2/	24	10	6	3	1	0	-	-	1	3
2	Ken Rosewall 2/	40	35	24	8	2	1	-	-	2	11
3	Jimmy Connors	95	61	57	3	0	1	16	12	1	3
4	John Newcombe 2/	40	32	8	17	4	3	-	-	2	22
5	Bjorn Borg	65	32	18	10	3	1	20	4	4	12
6	John McEnroe	63	41	32	4	2	3	18	1	13	4
7	Mats Wilander	52	32	22	5	3	2	15	3	3	9
8	Ivan Lendl	89	43	27	10	4	2	32	12	10	10
9	Boris Becker	57	39	26	6	3	4	21	4	4	13
10	Stefan Edberg	62	36	13	19	1	3	35	9	7	19
11	Jim Courier	37	21	17	3	1	0	14	10	1	3
12	Pete Sampras	84	48	40	4	2	2	20	8	8	4
13	Andre Agassi	85	61	41	10	5	5	33	6	10	17
14	Roger Federer	154	68	62	3	1	2	22	9	10	3
15	Rafael Nadal	137	65	54	9	1	1	20	7	4	9
16	Novak Djokovic	166	66	49	15	1	1	27	10	2	15
17	Andy Murray	65	38	7	21	6	4	44	13	10	21

1/ Since the beginning of the Open era.
2/ Laver, Rosewall and Newcombe had major achievements also before the open era that are not included in this table's statistics.

Yokozuna promotions are rare--on average there has been one about every three years. The largest gap of almost 10 years was between Andre Agassi's promotion in 1995 and Roger Federer's in 2004.

The table also shows important differences in the careers of the Yokozuna. The Dai-Yokozuna won the most tournaments. Other Yokozuna have been very consistent participants in grand slam finals and semi-finals, even though they fell sometimes short on the final hurdles. In terms of career points--a simple measure that allocates 4 points to a grand slam title, 3 points to a (lost) final, 2 points to a semi-final, and one point to a quarter-final--the most accomplished Yokozuna is Roger Federer, followed by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Jimmy Connors. Federer also hold the record for most tournament participations as a a Sanyaku-ranked player and as a Yokozuna

The quickest promotion from Grand Slam debutant to Yokozuna was Jim Courier's with only 14 tournaments (or 3 1/2 years). Courier needed 10 tournaments to arrive at the lower Sanyaku ranks (Komosubi and Sekiwake), but then moved rapidly all the way up to Yokozuna. The slowest advance has been Andy Murray's, who spent much of his career at Ozeki before clearing the final hurdle to Yokozuna in 2016.

January 28, 2024