US Open 2014: Nadal Withdraws, Federer New Favorite, Djokovic is Top Seed

By Jovelyn Javier Aug 21, 2014 04:33 PM EDT

US Open 2014: Nadal Withdraws, Federer New Favorite, Djokovic is Top Seed

Sad news, tennis fans and more particularly Nadal fans won't be seeing the "King of Clay" and defending champion Rafael Nadal at the US Open this Monday, as he withdraws due to a prolonged wrist injury. It can be recalled that Nadal won the US Open title last year after coming out from a knee injury, unfortunately, not this time around.

With Nadal out, everyone will likely benefit and will definitely give higher chances to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the top two seeds of winning the New York title.

Federer, a 17-time Grand Slam winner with five US Open titles is the new unlikely favorite to win. And recently, Federer is displaying his machine form again this 2014 season. He made it to the Wimbledon final against Djokovic in a head-to-head five-set match, as well as recent wins in Halle and Cincinnati; further showing that Federer has a lot of momentum.

Meanwhile, last year's runner-up and reigning Wimbledon champ Djokovic seems to be entering Flushing Meadows with some uncertainties, after coming from third-round losses to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Toronto and Tommy Robredo in Cincinnati. Despite that, he won the title in 2011 and has been consistently making it to the US Open final for the past four years. But will he able to rely on his Wimbledon confidence to catch Federer off guard?

Other favorites are US Open 2012 winner Andy Murray (seeded No.8), Milos Raonic (seeded No.5), Australian Open winner Stanislas Wawrinka (seeded No.3) and the "wild card" Grigor Dimitrov (seeded No.7).

Rounding up the top 16 seeds include; David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kei Nishikori, Ernests Gulbis, Richard Gasquet, John Isner, Marin Cilic, Fabio Fognini and Tommy Robredo.