Andy Murray, the one who managed to end Novak Djokovic's reign on his own terms as a result of that surreal rhythm from the second part of 2016, now sees his kingdom on the verge of collapse due to a critical cocktail of injuries, bad shape and lack of results.

2017 Wimbledon Championships was the last bitter chapter from a long unsuccessful streak. He lost to Sam Querrey in the quarterfinals and the tragic aspect is that a hip injury emerged.As it turned out, that particular injury has evolved into something worse forcing Andy Murray to withdraw from Rogers Cup and Cincinnati.

With Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer applying pressure from behind as they almost closed the gap, once Murray withdrew from Western&Southern Open one thing has become certain; Andy Murray will lose the No.1 spot on August 21 when the ranking will be updated with the Cincinnati results.

Either Nadal or Federer will surpass Murray

Rogers Cup in Montreal brought Nadal back in the proximity of the summit but the 31-year-old Spaniard failed in his attempt to surpass Murray this week. Denis Shapovalov sent off Nadal at the end of a three sets thriller simultaneously increasing Federer's chances to get close. If Federer can go all the way in Montreal (and he has the upper hand given the current surviving draw), next week, Cincinnati will witness an epic battle between Nadal and Federer.

One way or another, one of them will definitely go over Murray by next Sunday.

Cincinnati will be the end of a cycle

Andy Murray, 2016 Cincinnati runner-up and two-time titlist (2008, 2011) won't be there defending his points. As that hip injury seems to cause troubles, even US Open hangs in the balance for the 30-year-old tennis star.

All that he can hope for is that his body will fully recover just in time for the autumn indoor hard swing. That is a huge segment of last year's legacy and some serious work is required to prevent things from going off the rails. Murray cannot afford to skip the entire season as he might see his ranking plunging outside the top 10.

On the other side, if he aims for a longer professional career, some drastic decisions may be required. Djokovic and Wawrinka have already made that choice following Federer's example from last year.

With a single ATP title under his belt in 2017 and a lot of unconvincing results, especially while being the world No. 1, Murray might want to change that general perception at some point.