The US Open is bracing for a perfect storm of protests, pandemic and a brush with the remnants of Hurricane Laura as grand slam tennis makes a tortured return from a COVID-19 shutdown without spectators and many top players on Monday.

The coronavirus had already left its mark on the August 31-September 13 tournament, forcing players into a quarantined bubble and fans out of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre.

Safe from the virus there was, however, no protection from protests over social injustice spreading across the sporting spectrum, with women’s 2018 champion Naomi Osaka quitting the Western and Southern Open following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, in Wisconsin.

Osaka said on Wednesday she would not contest her semi-final at the US Open tune-up event being played at Flushing Meadows, joining a boycott by other athletes across the United Sates.

But she back-tracked on Thursday and said she would play a rescheduled semi to bring more attention to a movement that should also benefit from the US Open spotlight.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, a monolithic symbol to racial equality named after the black civil rights advocate, may not be the grandest stage in tennis but the sport’s biggest and rowdiest venue will remain as empty as the shuttered Broadway theaters during Flushing Meadows fortnight.

Rafael Nadal will not be in New York to defend his title and neither will five-times champion Roger Federer, who is recovering from knee surgery, nor his Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 US Open champion.

For some, the marquee no shows have devalued the tournament.

In the last 16 US Opens, Federer, Nadal and Wawrinka have won 10 titles.

That leaves Novak Djokovic, a three-times winner and five-time runner-up, as the man to beat.

There is no one in the men’s draw close to Djokovic’s pedigree and adding to his favourite status the Serb had been in sizzling form prior to COVID-19 shutdown, winning the two events he played, the Australian Open and Dubai Championship.

Djokovic had been hesitant to commit to the US Open but, served up a glorious chance to add to his 17 grand slam titles and close in on Nadal, second on 19 behind all-time leader Federer with 20, this was not an opportunity he could pass up.

“It is definitely strange not to have Federer and Nadal, at least one of them,” said Djokovic. “They will be missed, without a doubt because they are who they are, legends of our sport.

“But with Federer and Nadal and Wawrinka not coming to the tournament, every other top player is here.

“So I don’t make a significant difference in terms of whether this grand slam should be considered as a grand slam.”