Rafael Nadal: Absence from U.S. Open Ruins Prestige of Major Event
Men's tennis is in a very interesting state right now. There seems to be more depth and a changing of the guard near the top, yet the three biggest names are still Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
With the start of the U.S. Open this week, we should be talking about what it will take to knock those three off their perch, and if Andy Murray is ready to join that elite class following a run to the Wimbledon finals and an Olympic gold medal.
Instead, thanks to a nagging, persistent knee injury, Nadal was forced to the sidelines for the final major event of 2012, and the field just looks and feels incomplete.
Douglas Robson of USA Today wrote about the contenders at the U.S. Open in an article asking if it was "Time for a breakthrough?"
"This year has been different in one other respect, too: For the first time since 2005, none of the top three has won more than one major coming into New York. Djokovic won the Australian Open, Nadal captured the French Open and Federer nabbed Wimbledon.
Is it a signal that opportunity is knocking? Though No. 4 Murray is the odds-on favorite to break through, other contenders lurk.
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As great as it is for tennis to possibly get new blood in the fold, whoever wins the U.S. Open this year will always have the stigma of knowing that Nadal did not play.
That is not to say that whoever wins the 2012 U.S. Open is going to lose sleep knowing Nadal wasn't there; the winner will still get the big paycheck and their name etched in history forever.
But it does take some of the shine off the event knowing that the tremendous trio of Djokovic-Federer-Nadal is down to a dynamic duo with Djokovic and Federer.
Even though Nadal only has one U.S. Open title under his belt, he has made it to at least the semi-finals every year since 2008. Losing him leaves a void that no one else will be able to fill, both from a performance standpoint and marketing the event.
Nadal's absence from the U.S. Open is a far bigger deal than anything that will happen on the first few days at Flushing Meadows. It takes a lot of the shine out of what would otherwise be one of the biggest events of the year.
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