Meanwhile, the focus of attention in the women's tournament will be upon the first round match between the current world number two Simona Halep of Romania and the Russian who won this event in 2006, Maria Sharapova.

The latter was controversially awarded a wildcard for the US Open, which begins tomorrow at Flushing Meadows in New York City, even though she has missed most of the season after completing her 15-month doping ban in April.

On paper, Halep should progress - but the 30-year-old Russian, who won the US Open title in 2006, has a 6-0 win record over her.

Nadal, 31, who won his tenth French Open in June, and Federer, now 36, who has returned to peak form to win the Australian and Wimbledon titles this year, are seeded to meet in the semi-finals.

Their most obvious rivals in the top half of the draw are Austria's Dominic Thiem and the mercurial Nick Krygios of Australia.

The departure of Murray - who travelled to New York before accepting reluctantly that the hip injury which had hampered his movement at Wimbledon was still troubling him - has opened up the bottom half of the draw, which now looks full of promise for the 20-year-old German who was seeded to meet the British double Olympic champion in the semi-final, Alexander Zverev.

Both of last year's finalists - winner Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland and Serbia's Novak Djokovic - are out with respective knee and elbow injuries.

Croatian fifth seed Marin Cilic will move up to Murray's place in the draw and face Tennys Sandgren of the United States in the first round tomorrow.

Last year's US Open women's final saw Angelique Kerber of Germany earn the second grand slam of her career as she beat Karolina Pliskova, but since then it is the 25-year-old Czech player who has prospered the better and she goes into the tournament ranked number one in the world.

With Serena Williams, who is expecting her first child, absent, Pliskova - who reached this year's Australian Open quarter-finals and French Open semi-finals, looks a decent bet to go one further than she managed a year ago to secure her first grand slam.

If Halep can survive her first round meeting with Sharapova, she too should figure in the latter stages.

But, although she is only world number three, many observers believe Spain's 23-year-old Garbine Muguruza, French Open champion last year and winner of this year's Wimbledon title, has the mentality to add another grand slam trophy to her collection.

Serena's 37-year-old sister Venus, who won this title in 2000 and 2001, has reached the Australian and Wimbledon finals this year and both she and Switzerland's former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, still seeking a first grand slam, are in Muguruza's quarter of the draw.