This was flanked on Thursday with defending champion Bianca Andreescu joining the men's champion Rafael Nadal in withdrawing; meaning that only doubles may see a repeat winner.

Ashleigh Barty as number one seed in WTA was one of the first to drop out of proceedings ; despite initially being in entry lists, Elina Svitolina who was a doubt anyway; as well as Kiki Bertens due to the 14-day quarantine after as fifth and sixth seeds.

Simona Halep, the number two seed is also a major doubt; after admitting that a final decision has not been made yet. She is currently over in Prague playing the clay-court tournament, so could focus on Roland Garros.

This would mean that like at the Western & Southern Open; the top seeds would be Karolina Pliskova followed by Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in third and fourth.

Serena Williams would follow as the next requisite seed. Along the other names in the WTA to withdraw include Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (#29), former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova (#32) and Palermo winner Fiona Ferro (#44).

The men's entry list is looking less light albeit with some big names missing alongside Nadal. Roger Federer was always going to be missing COVID or not due to injury.

Gael Monfils similar to his girlfriend, Elina Svitolina has also decided against playing at Flushing Meadows.

Nick Kyrgios recently also announced his withdrawal and looks unlikely also for Roland Garros. Fabio Fognini (#11) and Stan Wawrinka (#17) are also missing.

Further down, a trio of Frenchman in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (#49), Lucas Pouille (#58), and Pierre-Hugues Herbert have also decided not to travel - with the latter in particular having his partner expecting their first child.

With further doubts about COVID-19, new names are getting added every day and a mass exodus further of players could still take place.