MELBOURNE: Roger Federer has warned rising Australian star Bernard Tomic that cracking the world’s top 10 will be no easy task after the young Australian won his first ATP Tour title.
Tomic, who claimed his eighth straight win of the year in downing the 36th-ranked Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3 at the Sydney International final on Saturday, believes he can achieve top 10 status by year’s end.
But 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer is not so sure.
“I think we should go step by step, see how it goes,” said the Swiss great.
“Let’s speak in a year’s time. Everybody wants to jump from, what’s his ranking, 60, to 10 in a year. It’s hard to do. Ten is a big ask.
“Don’t forget how tough the top 10 players are right now,” he said yesterday.
Tomic heads to Melbourne for the Australian Open with his ranking down from 64 to 43 and with a chance of facing Federer in the third round.
It is a big turnaround for a player who was tipped to emerge as one of the new stars of tennis in 2012, but instead battled controversy on and off the court.
A quarter-finalist at Wimbledon in 2011, his playing stocks plummeted when he was accused of tanking by former great John McEnroe in his 6-3 6-4 6-0 second-round loss to Andy Roddick at the US Open.
He was knocked out in the second round at the French Open and first round at Wimbledon, and won just seven of his last 21 matches of the season. AFP
