urine-day: judged ex cathedra the fourth-best
Hal is, at seventeen, as of 10/Y.D.A.U., judged ex cathedra the fourth-best tennis player under age eighteen in the United States of America, and the sixth-best on the continent, by those athletic-organizing bodies duly charged with the task of ranking.
Context
The ranking machinery named at full pomp: Hal is "judged ex cathedra the fourth-best" junior in the country "by those athletic-organizing bodies duly charged with the task of ranking." The Latin does the work — the seeding is handed down as papal pronouncement, an infallible verdict on a body's worth issued by an accredited governing body. The athlete does not have a rank so much as receive one, ex cathedra, from the institution whose sole office is to number him.