The world No 1 is certainly buoyed by the prospect of emulating his achievement of holding all four majors but knows that nothing less than perfection will be required.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal failed to win a single game in the opening set of his US Open quarter-final against Dominic Thiem on Tuesday but fought back to beat the Austrian 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5) in match that ended past 2 am in New York.
This time last year, Federer was the pundits' pick to claim a third Grand Slam title of 2017 in New York, after roaring back from a season decimated by injury to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
The Spaniard found himself outpaced 6-2, 6-4 after a breathtaking semi-final display of power and touch by the 2009 US Open champion at the Shanghai Masters.
Rediff.com gives you a quick flashback, in pictures of the month gone by...
IMAGES from the matches played at Miami Miasters in Key Biscayne, Florida, on Wednesday
The Canadian's win sets up a semi-final clash with Del Potro on Saturday that will pit power against power.
IMAGES from matches on Day 9 at the French Open at Roland Garros
Andy Murray is ready for "one more big push" this week as he tries to steer defending champions Britain into the Davis Cup final.
Andy Murray suffered his first defeat in nearly three months on Thursday when he was beaten by Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the third round of the Rogers Cup. Playing just his second match since winning Wimbledon, Murray fell 6-4, 6-3 in less than an hour and a half in one of the key lead-up events to the US Open.
Serena, a six-times champion in New York who is seeded 17th, will start her campaign against Polish world number 60 Magda Linette and could face Venus in the third round before a possible fourth-round showdown with Romanian top seed Halep.
Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez of Spain won the Olympic men's doubles tennis title on Friday, beating Romania's Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau to secure their country's third gold medal of the Rio Games.
Rafael Nadal kept the flag flying for the old guard at the Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over American Frances Tiafoe on Tuesday for a place in the semi-finals, where he will meet another next generation player in Stefanos Tsitsipas.
A summary of Tuesday's play at the French Open.
Roger Federer set up a mouthwatering semi-final with Rafael Nadal at the ATP World Tour finals after battling past Juan Martin del Potro in their Group B shoot-out.
Roger Federer ended Grigor Dimitrov's seven-match winning streak and showed the Bulgarian he has some way to go to live up to his 'Baby Federer' tag with a 6-3 7-6 (2) quarter-final victory at the Basel Open on Friday.
Fifth seed Roger Federer was dumped out of the Shanghai Open, losing to Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 in the third round on Thursday.
Top seed Juan Martin del Potro beat Nicolas Almagro of Spain 7-6(7), 7-6(1) in the semi-final of the Japan Open on Saturday to set up a title clash with big-serving Milos Raonic of Canada.
Novak Djokovic lost his momentum in the second half of last season and was toppled as the world number one by Andy Murray because his work-rate dropped, the Serbian's former coach Boris Becker said on Wednesday. Speaking a day after the two terminated their cooperation by mutual consent, German Becker said Djokovic's need to spend more time with his family had derailed him on the court.
Kyle Edmund has the most destructive forehand in tennis and it can power him into the world's top 10, according to three-times Australian Open champion Mats Wilander.
Djokovic is clubbed with Federer, Juan Martin Del Potro, David Goffin and Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic had his personal best winning sequence of 30 consecutive sets ended as Cilic played almost flawlessly aggressive tennis to draw first blood in a magnificent duel.
The 32-year-old, who has not played since retiring injured in the US Open semi-finals, cited an abdominal injury.
Andy Murray begins his late-season assault on Novak Djokovic's world number one ranking at the China Open this week hoping to take a chunk out of the 4,695-point gap separating them.
'Just six months ago, you would've been labelled mad for even suggesting the possibility of Djokovic relinquishing the top spot in men's tennis.'
Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer battled past in-form Russian Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the last-16 at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday.
The seventh-seeded Bulgarian advanced to his eighth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Del Potro, who struggled with the intense heat in the closing stages of the one hour, 39 minute match.
World number one Roger Federer survived a scare from unseeded Borna Coric to beat him 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday and set up a final showdown with Juan Martin del Potro who cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Milos Raonic.
Former world number one Garbine Muguruza was beaten 7-5, 6-4 by Aryna Sabalenka in the China Open second round on Tuesday while an ailing Jelena Ostapenko lost 6-0, 6-0 to Wang Qiang.
World number one Serena Williams opened her US Open account with a tidy 6-3, 6-3 win over Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday, to join her sister Venus in the second round of the year's final Grand Slam.
The Swiss great is looking to win a 102nd tour-level trophy and move closer to Jimmy Connors' record of 109.
Argentina's Diego Schwartzman ended a two-year wait for his second ATP tour title as he overpowered an exhausted Fernando Verdasco to win the Rio Open 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday.
A summary of Thursday's play at the French Open.
Change might be afoot though, according to American great John McEnroe
For soccer great Diego Maradona, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro was more than a friend and fellow Latin American legend, he was "a second father." Maradona said Castro's death late on Friday hit him like a tennis ball to the chest served by Juan Martin del Potro, the Argentine player he cheered on in the Davis Cup final where he received the news. "I wept uncontrollably," Maradona told reporters on the sidelines of the tennis tournament. "After my father, it's the deepest sorrow I know."
The Argentine, making his first appearance at Wimbledon since reaching the semi-finals in 2013, held aloft his arms in triumph after condemning twice Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka to his earliest defeat at the All England Club for three years.
The Swiss played some of his best tennis this year but it was still not enough to stop him from being on the receiving end of a 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4 defeat against the powerful Argentine and his 220 kph serve.
Spaniard Feliciano Lopez has not beaten Roger Federer in 13 attempts but he finally got one over him on Tuesday without even needing to lay a glove on the Swiss great.
Tommy Haas kept alive his slim chances of qualifying for next month's ATP World Tour Finals when he edged past near namesake Robin Haase 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to lift his 15th career title at the Vienna Open on Sunday.
Zverev defeated Anderson 6-4, 6-4 and captured his fourth title of the year in the finals played on Sunday.
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