Who will step into Novak Djokovic’s shoes?

Since he weaved his way to a first Grand Slam final as a charismatic 20-year-old a decade ago, Novak Djokovic has had a blessed relationship with the US hard court swing.

It was the first of seven US Open finals for the Serb, the US Open champion in 2011 and 2015. There have also been four ATP Masters 1000 titles in Canada, along with five finals finishes in Cincinnati.

Even in the 2016 US summer – a period which in hindsight would mark the early beginnings of the most difficult period of Novak’s career – there was a win over Kei Nishikori to claim Toronto and another finals run in New York.

So who steps up now that the injured Djokovic has declared his season as done?

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World No.1 Andy Murray is unlikely to feel too much relief. Apart from having an edge over Novak in the US – Murray defeated Djokovic in the final to win his first Grand Slam title at the 2012 US Open, with another big win coming in the 2015 Montreal final – the Scot has his own injury hurdles to leap.

Stan Wawrinka, who upset Novak to win the 2016 US Open, equally knows not to overstate the changed landscape.

Breakthrough stars, though, may be eyeing their chance. The US summer, after all, is often the time for new twists: in 2014, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the surprise winner of Montreal, while Marin Cilic and Wawrinka became first-time US Open champions in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Among those most credentialed to claimed career firsts in the weeks ahead are Milos Raonic, who made his Masters 1000 final at Montreal in 2013, and Kei Nishikori, runner-up to Cilic at the US Open the following year.

Similarly, the “next” Next Gen can be confident. Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev are increasingly a force in big events, with each achieving career-best Grand Slam runs in 2017. And if the hip injury that’s been troubling Nick Kyrgios has healed, the Australian can reasonably hope to replicate hard court successes from earlier this year, when he was a quarterfinalist at Indian Wells and reached the semis of Miami.

But logic suggests that those who will most benefit from Novak’s absence are those who have so sensationally usurped him in 2017. Sharing every Slam between them this season, there is arguably a sense of freedom for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

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Absent after Wimbledon last year, the world No.3 Swiss has no points to defend over the US hard court season. A rare absence of pressure is enhanced by confidence of past wins: alongside five consecutive US Open victories between 2003 and 2007, Federer has two Canada Masters 1000 titles and seven in Cincinnati (most recently in 2015).

Nadal, too, will easily recall his most important wins. The US Open champion in 2010 and 2013, the Spaniard has also won four lead-in ATP Masters 1000 events (three in Canada, one in Cincinnati).

Intriguingly, those two champions have played only one of their 37 career matches – the 2013 Cincinnati quarterfinal, which Nadal won – during this US hard court swing.

Rewind a year ago, and few could imagine that those Federer and Nadal could potentially provide a glorious finale to an unlikely Grand Slam year – just as few would consider that Djokovic would be one player who’d be removed from that path.