Federer thought Tomic was ranked 60th in the world

Roger Federer attempted to defuse his feud with Bernard Tomic but not without one last parting shot by claiming he thought the Australian was ranked 60th in the world.

Published : Jan 26, 2016 15:19 IST

Bernard Tomic is the highest ranked Australian with a world ranking of 17.
Bernard Tomic is the highest ranked Australian with a world ranking of 17.
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Bernard Tomic is the highest ranked Australian with a world ranking of 17.

Roger Federer attempted to defuse his feud with Bernard Tomic but not without one last parting shot by claiming he thought the Australian was ranked 60th in the world.

Tomic - the world number 17 - has been busy responding to Federer, who questioned whether the 23-year-old could crack the ATP's top 10 prior to the Australian Open. Australian number one Tomic, who initially hit back by claiming Federer was "nowhere near" world number one Novak Djokovic's level, felt the 17-time grand slam champion said the wrong thing.

Federer was asked about Tomic's comments after reaching the Australian Open semi-finals via a straight-sets win over Tomas Berdych on Tuesday and the Swiss great told reporters: "I said a lot of things in Brisbane. I guess only a small part got taken out of it. It's a bit out of context. Then you feed it to a player, he reacts, might be frustrated, and then he goes even further.

"I'd like to see anybody succeed and anybody make their move. Especially to top 100 first, top 10, world number one. If everybody could be that, I wish that for everyone. To be quite honest, when I walked out of the press room I thought I was somewhat tough, but at the same time I was fair because I said nice things about him. But then I checked his ranking. I didn't know his ranking was as high as it was, to be quite honest."

"I thought he was like 50 or 60 and he was top 20. That was my bad, to be honest. But I don't check the rankings every day. I came from the off-season. I had no clue what was going on anymore. That was my bad.

"But I still believe it's a big difference top 10 for a week or for a year or for multiple years, and getting there is not easy. It's a lot of dedication, a lot of hard work. There's a lot of guys who have the potential right now, not just him. That's why I think it got brought up in many ways.

"It was, I thought, quite funny, because I knew what I said and I knew what I didn't know then when I said it. It was kind of funny."

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