For most people, the US Open will be the same as it always was.

“Loud, noisy, the biggest stadium in our sport – and those night sessions are just absolutely electric,” in the words of Tim Henman.

He will be there for the fortnight as a Sky Sports pundit, as will all the biggest stars of the game – but not Andy Murray.

For Murray, this will be a unique grand slam, the first one of the rest of his life. Instead of spending it sweating under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, he will be chasing around after his four children, trying live a normal life.

His wife Kim deliberately booked a family holiday to overlap with the US Open in order to remove any temptation for Murray to get involved: summer holidays with his family have been a rarity in the last 20 years after all.

Murray’s long-awaited retirement, sealed in Paris at the Olympics earlier this month, was celebrated last weekend with a bash of around 30 people at his home in Surrey, including Henman.

“It was great to see him. He looked very content,” Henman tells i.

“The doubles in Paris kind of epitomised Murray’s career in a funny sort of way: saving those match points, the never-say-die attitude, and the energy and the passion on the court.

“It was great that he could finish off in an event that has meant so much to him, and it’s played such an important part in his career.”

Plan as his wife might, it will be hard to keep Murray away from a tennis court. He did try to retire once, telling the world he was “probably” done in 2019 before the well-told story of hip surgery, despair and recovery. This one is permanent, but no one believes it is the last we will see of the 37-year-old in the game of tennis.

He has already been spotted back on court, dropping in on a training session with time with Scottish teenager Dominik Czopek before going on holiday.

“My advice to Andy would be take your time,” adds Henman, the former world No 4 who has often been approached about coaching but prefers spending time at his Oxfordshire home, playing the monthly medal at the local golf course and occasional trips for TV stints.

“He’s had such a phenomenal career and his wife and four kids will want to see a lot more of him. He can really enjoy that and the list of opportunities for Andy going forward are going to be enormous, and there’s no need to rush into them.

“But if you were going to ask me in which direction I think he will go, I would say a coaching role. He’s got enormous passion for the game, and that’s where I’m sure he’ll still be involved in some capacity.

“When you reflect on his tennis IQ, he would be a great coach that would have an enormous amount to offer.”

Without him though, the unrelenting pace of tennis continues. The addition of the Olympics to this year’s calendar, and it being played on clay courts for the first time since in 32 years, has created a gruelling summer schedule that the top players are each having to manage in their own way.

Novak Djokovic, the newly-crowned Olympic gold medallist, has already arrived in New York but an exhibition doubles pairing with John McEnroe against Andre Agassi and Carlos Alcaraz is as close as he will have got to a preparatory tournament.

“With his experience and his abilities, I don’t think it makes any difference whether he’s played a hard-court tournament pre-US Open,” Henman says.

“Look at it in the context of the tennis calendar: from the first day of Roland Garros to the first day of the US Open, there are 14 weeks. And within tennis, if you include the Olympics as being a major, in those 14 weeks we will have had four majors and two Masters 1000s. That’s six events.

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“You think of the other athletes preparing for the Olympic Games, they might prepare for 14 months for one event.

“In certain cases, players cannot participate in all those events because of the physical and mental demands, and so it’s really about managing your own game and your own schedule.”

Djokovic’s own summer has been a rollercoaster. He looked to have a very good chance of winning Roland Garros before a meniscus injury, then knee surgery, a miraculous recovery in time for Wimbledon, a run to the final and then suffering what would have been “as close to an annihilation as I’d seen in a big match” had he not saved three match points at 5-4, 40-0 down in the third set. He still lost to Alcaraz, now in possession of half grand slams, and it was still straight sets.

“But then for him to be able to respond in the gold medal match, which was the one title that he was missing from his CV, then to beat Alcaraz, was perhaps Djokovic his greatest achievement that that one match,” adds Henman.

“With all due respect, at 37, this was his last realistic chance of winning Olympic gold, and he achieved it. So my hat’s off to him. It was just a phenomenal performance.”

Djokovic insists he wants to defend the title at the next Games in Los Angeles when he will be 41 (“I’ll believe it when I see it,” scoffs Henman, who is nevertheless reluctant to write it off entirely) but lasting that long will require careful management of his body and schedule.

At the other end of her career, Emma Raducanu is doing the same thing. Like Djokovic, she arrives in New York having not played competitive tennis for more than three weeks.

Ranked No 71 in the world, Raducanu needed a wildcard to play either of the two hard-court Masters 1000 tournaments but was not offered one: she also chose not to play qualifying, and instead flew home before returning to the United States to prepare for the US Open, a decision that puzzled some observers given she skipped the Olympics to focus on the hard courts.

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“There is an enormous focus of attention, almost an obsession, on Raducanu’s schedule, or Raducanu’s coach, or Raducanu’s fitness,” Henman says.

“From her point of view, it’s a lot more straightforward. She’s taking a long term view on these things. And when you look at the results, when she has played, she’s played fantastic tennis.

“If she had the opportunity to play in Cincinnati or in Canada in the main draw, I’m sure she would have taken it. Hopefully she plays well in New York and she has a strong finish to the year. [If she does that] she’s going to be top 30 before long and and then she’ll be direct acceptance into those events anyway.

“She’s doing all the right things. Her game is progressing nicely. So I look forward to seeing on the match court whenever it may be.”

Watch the US Open exclusively live on Sky Sports and streaming service NOW from 26 August