Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Yokozuna of Tennis -- What is This About?

."Yokozuna" is the highest rank awarded to a wrestler in Ozumo, Japan's national sport. Getting to this rank is very difficult -- a wrestler needs to established safely at the top of the sport. A Yokozuna promotion thus happens only every two years or so, and there are rarely more than two or three active Yokozuna. But it it also a great honor: the few wrestlers who have attained this rank have often become legends and remained household names in Japan long after their active careers ended.

This site's starting point is the observation that tennis is, in important ways, similarly organized as Ozumo. Both are sports that match man against man (or woman against woman). The tennis year is organized around the four grand slam tournaments, while in Ozumo there are six grand tournaments per year. The career of a tennis player, as much as a of a rikishi (sumo wrestler), is largely measured by how well they did in these tournaments.

"Yokozuna tennis" applies ranking criteria informed by Ozumo to Grand Slam tennis. Yokozuna (Grand Champion) is the highest possible rank; there are also the soemwhat lesser ranks of Ozeki (Champion), Sekiwake (Junior Champion I) and Komosubi (Junior Champion II). Together these ranks are referred to as the Sanyaku or championship ranks that separate extraoridnary competitors from the rest of the field.

The idea works--I believe--well. Applied to tennis, there have been 16 male and 16 female Yokozuna since the beginning of the Open Era , from Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and from Margaret Court and Billie Jean King to the Williams sisters and Kim Clijsters. Further, about 30 male and 30 female tennis players peaked at the second highest rank of Ozeki, including legends such as Guillermo Vilas, Arthur Ashe and Virginia Wade - or, among the active players, Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and Viktoria Azarenka (who, of course, could still make it to Yokozuna). There are again about twice as many career-high "Sekiwake", and even more  career-high "Komosubi".

For more, browse through this site.

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