Former world No 1 John McEnroe is expecting Roger Federer’s resurgent 2017 season to continue into the US Open, which is set to begin on Monday.

“At the moment we’re just assuming that Roger is going to pull the rabbit out of the hat again,” McEnroe was quoted as saying by Reuters. “If Roger wins this, it will be one of the great stories in the last 50 years or ever.”

McEnroe, a four-time US Open champion, also added that he mentioned as much to Federer when he met with him on Wednesday. “I saw him today,” said McEnroe, “and I said, ‘I’ve got to tell you, hats off. I’ve watched tennis for 40 or 50 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.’”

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Sharing similarity with the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s opinion is his countrywoman, 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert. Commenting on Federer’s blistering form in 2017, after he took a six-month break from the Tour to recuperate from a knee injury, Evert said, “He came back and it was ridiculous. It was like he was a different person. It was like his clone has come back.”

Despite renewed avowal about his second coming from the sport’s legends, Federer’s participation at Flushing Meadows has not been set up as perfectly as he would have wanted it to be. The 36-year-old injured his back unexpectedly during the Montreal Masters’ final against Alexander Zverev in August. The same injury, then, forced him to withdraw from the Cincinnati Masters.

Evert, however, stated that she was hopeful of Federer being “healthy” during the fortnight of the last Major of the season. “I was sitting on the court in Montreal when he tweaked his lower back and it was really evident that something was wrong with him,” she said. “You never know, he doesn’t say much about his injuries and he made no excuses after the match, but hopefully he’s healthy.”