Novak Djokovic will reportedly miss the 2017 Us Open later this summer. The event is scheduled to start on August 28th so one may presume very safely that the Serb will miss the big events between now and that time. Those events are the Rogers Cup in Montreal and the Western & Southern Open from Cincinnati. Both tournaments are a part of the Masters Series while the US Open is a Grand Slam. Accordingly, the ranking implications for Djokovic promise to be immense.

Serbian journalist reports Djokovic's problems

The news of Djokovic's impending absence comes from Sasa Ozmo, a sports journalist based out of Belgrade, the capital of Djokovic's home country of Serbia.

He tweeted on July 24th that Djokovic has a "bone bruise" caused by overplaying. There has been some buzz about Djokovic being injured for quite some time now. He pulled out of the Wimbledon quarters earlier this month, down a set and a break to Tomas Berdych. Heading into the match, Berdych was a player that Djokovic had dominated during the courses of their careers.

Djokovic, according to his rankings breakdown at the ATP's website, has 1000 points to defend for winning the Canadian Masters last season. The Serb also has 1200 ranking points to defend for making the US Open final last year, losing that final to Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland. If Novak Djokovic takes zeroes for both events, as is now expected, then it will leave him a balance of 4125 ranking points.

When that total is applied to the current rankings, then it would see him ranked 6th in the world.

But there is also the matter of who gains the ranking points that Novak Djokovic stands to lose.

There will be an extra spot in the late rounds of the US Open this season that hasn't been there in recent years. When that is factored in, then it's possible that the Serb might be ranked 7th or 8th after the US Open.

If Djokovic misses balance of season?

Additionally, one has to wonder when exactly Djokovic will return. A timetable of 6-12 weeks has been suggested (Ozmo).

If the upper range was applied then it would practically shutdown Djokovic's entire season. If he returned in late October then there are a limited number of events that he could play in. One late-season event is the ATP World Tour Finals, but Djokovic has basically no chance of qualifying this season thanks to the injury. The season-ending event is for the top-eight players on tour and it awards very significant ranking points. It's quite possible that the Serb finishes the 2017 season ranked outside of the top ten now. He could certainly come back dangerous in 2018 and, of course, he would target the Australian Open title to get back into the swing of things. However, the Serb certainly has a battle ahead of him after spending so much time in the top two in this decade.
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