Hoping for Federer miracle as US Open begins today

In announcing his retirement from tennis, US tennis star James Blake remarked that he is proud of his career even though it wasn’t a Hall of Fame caliber career.

Whenever Roger Federer decides to retire, he can be assured as place in the sport’s Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, as the greatest male player of all time.

People tend to dwell on the fact that Federer is having a miserable season and his ranking has dropped from #1 to #7.

But this photo, which I snagged from The Backlot’s US Open preview, reminds us all of how year after year – including at Wimbledon just last year – Federer has come through on the sport’s biggest stages.

No matter what happens at this year’s US Open, his 17 grand slam singles titles will be hard for his closest rivals Rafael Nadal (12), Novak Djokovic (6) and Andy Murray (2) to ever catch.