Federer says top 10 is 'big ask' for Aussie hope Tomic

China's Yan Zi trains for the Australian Open yesterday. Yan, who is on a comeback trail after taking couple of years off to become a mother, will partner Chang Kai-chen of Chinese Taipei in the doubles.

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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 after winning 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."

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.

Tomic said yesterday he had learned from his mistakes. "I learnt so much. Ups and downs. I had my ups at the start in January. But then I had my downs. I'll learn from my downs," he said. "Lucky I learnt at my age, 20, not 25 and 28. I'm learning now. I'm happy I learnt everything and I can use it to get the best potential out of myself."

Federer cautioned that Tomic should only think about his first round match. "He's got his work cut out, you know, in the first few rounds," he said. "He will be making a mistake about thinking about me in the third round because he also has to get there."

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