Roger Federer is without a doubt one of the best tennis players to have ever swung a racket and his legacy created a benchmark for future players to aspire to.
The discussion over the greatest ever usually centres around Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, with the Serbian still playing at 37-years-old.
Nadal and Djokovic boast more majors than Federer but neither could replicate the effortless nature that the Swiss performer went about his business on the ATP Tour.
Gael Monfils recently picked his GOAT player. Every player will have their own opinion and when it comes to the discussion there is no right or wrong answer.
In 2009, Federer was looking to add a third Grand Slam title to his haul for the year by the time the US Open came around.
The star has already got his hands on the French Open – his only one – and Wimbledon and his title defence at Flushing Meadows got off to an intriguing start.
What happened when Roger Federer drew the 1370th ranked ATP player
Conor Niland has previously spoken about playing Novak Djokovic at the US Open. It’s daunting for any qualifier or wildcard entrant and something similar happened in 2009 to Federer.
Devin Britton was handed a wildcard in 2009 and as the world number 1370th ranked player he was handed the thankless task of coming up against Federer in the first round.
It’s very rare that two players at such different stages of the rankings lock horns and the match went exactly as the form suggested it would.
Federer came through the match in straight sets, winning the clash 6-1, 6-3, 7-5, with Britton putting up a real fight in the third set with nothing to lose.
The Swiss player got all the way to the final in 2009 but came up against an in-form Juan Martin del Potro who beat Federer in five sets ti win his only Grand Slam title.
What happened to Devin Britton
Well, this was about as good as it got for the player who simply never managed to make a genuine fist of climbing the world rankings as a tennis player.
Britton did manage to get into three figures and in January 2013 he was the number 378 but failed to really break out from the college tennis ranks.
Nobody can ever take the clash with Federer away from Britton, however, and those memories of that clash will live long in his memory.
Britton had some brilliant wins as a junior player, reaching two Wimbledon quarter-finals and the final of the US Open in 2008 – prompting the wildcard that saw him meet Federer.
Clearly, the rigours of trying to climb the rankings took its toll in the end but facing Federer will be something that Britton never forgets.