By Chris Oddo | Friday August 26, 2016

A pair of two-time champions with ailing wrists. A five-time champion and legend of the game out for the season. Rafael Nadal said it best during media day at the U.S. Open when he uttered with a smile. “The Big Four are getting old.”

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These truly are trying time for three of the greatest players of their generation—and of all-time—but at least two of them are very much in the mix at the U.S. Open, health woes and all, and hoping that they can summon greatness by the time the last ball is struck at the 2016 U.S. Open.

And then there is Andy Murray. Scorching-hot and playing the best tennis of his career, with his favorite good luck charm Ivan Lendl in his coaching box, Murray looks poised to grab the reigns and—at least for a spell—become tennis’ top dog. But looking poised and actually being the entity are two entirely different things.

While Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have spent 656 combined weeks at No. 1, Murray has only dreamed of ruling tennis’ big four. No, Murray has always been the Big 4’s anchor man. He’s been the bridesmaid more than he’s been the bride, and he’s suffered at the hands of its other three members more than he’s made them suffer.

But just days before 2016’s final Grand Slam is about to begin, Murray is staring at a great opportunity to really assert himself as the dominant here-and-now player in men’s tennis. With Djokovic and Nadal each dusty and rusty and concerned about wrist problems and Federer out for the season there may never be a better time for Andy Murray to shine.

That’s the storyline that rings the cleanest at the moment in Queens. But we can be sure that Djokovic, bidding to inch ever close to Federer’s seemingly unassailable record of 17 major titles, has other ideas. So too does Nadal, who appeared the 2016 Olympic Games after a 73-day hiatus due to a wrist injury and looked quite spry. Nadal didn’t medal in singles at Rio, but he really did appear to lose none of the momentum that he built this spring when he charged to meaningful clay court titles at Monte-Carlo and Barcelona before shocking the world by pulling out at Roland Garros.

Many thought it portended the end of the season for Nadal, and maybe the end of his career, but he looked marvelous in Rio. He was full of fire and spunk and struck the ball as clean as he has all year.

“After watching him play, if he’s as eager as he seemed to look on the court, he’s only going to get better,” ESPN’s Chris Evert said during a U.S. Open conference call earlier this week. “And he knows the little tweaks he can make in his game, which is from rust and from maybe not hitting with enough confidence. He knows what he needs to do, and I think if he gets a little more aggressive, and makes a few more little adjustments and really wants it badly enough, he’s going to go nowhere but up. So I think he’s still in the game.”

Being in the game and having a shot at the title are two entirely different animals, but this isn’t Nadal’s first rodeo. The 14-time Grand Slam champion knows a thing or two about winning majors, and even though he’s been kept out of the winner’s circle since 2014 at Roland Garros, if he’s given the opportunity here in New York, would it be all that surprising if he took it?

But let’s be clear. The U.S. Open, like every other tournament this season, is Novak Djokovic’s to lose. Injured wrist or no injured wrist, there are reasons that the Serb is 18-1 against the Top 10 this year including a combined 6-1 against Nadal and Murray. Stretch that record back to the beginning of 2015 and Djokovic is a combined 16-2 against Nadal and Murray. Clearly Friday’s admission that his wrist is not quite at 100 percent and that it bothers his backhand was eye opening, but until we see Djokovic struggling on court, he gets the benefit of the doubt that the game’s most dominant player should get.

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The big four might be getting old as Nadal says, but at 29 Djokovic is still very much at the height of his powers. “I'm 29 at the moment and believe that I'm at a peak of my abilities as a tennis player,” Djokovic told media on Friday. “I'll try to keep that peak as consistent and enduring as much as possible.”

As for Nadal, who turned 30 on June 3, he’d like to get his mojo back in New York, and he’s talking like he truly feels he can do it. “It's obvious that we will not be here forever,” he said. “It's true that Andy and Novak today are creating distance from the rest. At the same time, it's true I have been injured and Roger, too, no? Let's see. I am excited about this part of the season.”

So are we, Rafa. So are we.