Early 2015 US Open Storylines to Start Following Now

As summer hits its latter stretch, the 2015 U.S. Open should be a fairly wide-open tournament, that is if Novak Djokovic comes down to earth. Regardless, there are plenty of storylines tennis fans will follow as the season draws closer to its final major.

As usual, the superstars dominate the storylines. Find out why Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams continue to be big stories. Also find out why last year's ATP U.S. Open final combatants did not register as much attention, and neither are they expected to do so this year.

However the summer shakes out, these will be the characters and stories that most tennis fans will discuss.

Will Novak Djokovic Be Dominant at the US Open?

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The men’s tour begins and ends with Novak Djokovic, and he will once again be the U.S. Open favorite, despite only one career title (2011) at Flushing Meadows. This has often been a place where Djokovic should succeed, but it's where he has been snakebit or undone by other hot opponents. Last year, he was lackluster in a four-set semifinal loss to Kei Nishikori.

Winning the U.S. Open would mean several important legacy accomplishments for the Serbian. It would be three majors for 2015, the first time anyone has accomplished this since Djokovic in 2011. He would surpass Rafael Nadal, who only had one year (2010) with three majors, and he would be in position to match Roger Federer’s three years with three majors (2004, 2006-07).

Djokovic would also get his 10th career major to join Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Federer and Nadal in the Open era with double-digit career totals. From this point in Djokovic's career, every major win is another climb up the ladder among the elite legends.

He’s at the top of his game, in the prime of his career and looking to close out four times in five years with the year-end No. 1 ranking. Nobody knows if his shelf life as the absolute dominant king of tennis will last a few more months or a few more years, so this is his chance to conquer and keep claiming.

How Will Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori Follow Up 2014?

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Maybe not a lot of casual tennis fans will care to see Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori get back to the U.S. Open final. Last year's match was a disappointment given the number of empty seats and lack of buzz, according to Art Spander for Bleacher Report, as he soberly outlined a theme of disappointment following Cilic's U.S. Open victory:

"

They figured it out a long time ago in Hollywood and just across the river from here on Broadway: You need a star. It didn't really matter if a famous actor could act, only if he was famous.

The final of the U.S. Open Monday night didn't have those names. What it had was Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori.

"

While plenty of change has swirled about the ATP, it's mostly been a cloud of dust here and there. However, it has been enough to obscure the usual clear pictures of big-star tennis, but it's hardly a hurricane that threatens to blow through the likes of Djokovic, Federer and Andy Murray.

For their parts, Cilic and Nishikori will be hard-pressed to make it back to the final. Nishikori survived two marathon five-setters over Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka before his giant semifinal win over Djokovic. Cilic was underwhelming in the third and fourth rounds, but he swept through his final three opponents—Tomas Berdych, Federer and Nishikori.

Will either of them challenge for the title? Possibly, but expectations will probably be under the radar once again.

Is Andy Murray or Stan Wawrinka More Likely to Get His Third Major?

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Although Andy Murray has had the greater career over the past decade, including championships at the 2012 U.S. Open and 2013 Wimbledon, it’s quite possible that late-blooming Stan Wawrinka could be the one to hammer home his third major.

Murray has returned to bid at the top of the tennis rankings at No. 3, but he has been turned away by Djokovic in the Australian Open final and French Open semifinals. Can he avoid his nemesis or snap his eight-match losing streak to the top-ranked Serbian?

Conversely, Wawrinka has defeated Djokovic two important times, to set up his 2014 Australian Open title and win this year’s French Open. He also defeated Murray in the 2013 U.S. Open quarterfinals, so there's a bit of history there.

Do you take Murray’s reliable consistency and 2012 U.S. Open pedigree (defeated Djokovic for the title), or will Wawrinka’s thundering strokes and big-match play against Djokovic make it more likely that he will win?

Will Either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal Have a Glorious Run?

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In 2013, Roger Federer struggled with injuries, a racket change and a late-career decline. Rafael Nadal defeated him at Cincinnati, and he was quickly ousted at the U.S. Open. Nadal was in the midst of a sizzling summer, and he took home that major.

Now the roles have been somewhat reversed. While Federer enjoys a late-career afterglow at No. 2, Nadal has fallen into the worst year of his career. Many wonder if his time as a major contender is already over, or if he can soon find his superstar form.

Win or lose, the two megastars will always garner interest and attention as they wind down their careers. However, if either or both of them catch fire and win the U.S. Open, it will be another modern epic simply because of their illustrious legacies and rabid followers.

Federer is more likely to have success on the fast hard courts, because he has had more consistent recent results behind a better offensive attack. Still, there’s always a chance that Nadal regains his form just in time for another startling comeback.

Or wouldn’t it be something if they faced each other at the U.S. Open? That’s something that has never happened. A quarterfinal meeting between Federer and Nadal would be a bigger media circus than any other pairing in the final. Yep, the power of legends.

Will Serena Williams Get Her Calendar Slam?

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Serena Williams stands alone in women’s tennis. So does her story. The American already holds all four major titles dating back to the 2014 U.S. Open, so Serena Slam 2.0 is in the bag. Now she is bidding for an even greater extension of history.

If she wins the 2015 U.S. Open, Serena will have the first calendar Grand Slam since Steffi Graf’s masterpiece in 1988. Furthermore, Serena and Graf would be deadlocked with 22 career titles.

On the surface, she is the overwhelming favorite to get it done. But there will be distractions. She must do this in New York where the press, and her home country’s big-picture hype may not make it easy for her to block out everything but tennis. Expectations, external or internal, can be weighty.

It’s hard to see Serena losing, so the 2015 U.S. Open already feels a bit more like a coronation than just a shot at history. Will she or won’t she? It’s the biggest question in tennis.