Federer smooths over rift with Tomic

MELBOURNE: Tennis great Roger Federer has issued a tacit apology for inadvertently provoking a war of words with temperamental local Bernard Tomic ahead of the Australian Open.

Federer, a 17-time grand slam champion, had said at the Brisbane International that the 23-year-old Tomic, touted as one of the up-and-coming generation of men’s tennis, was “far away” from reaching the top-10.

Tomic, the highest ranked Australian at 17, took umbrage at the remarks and then told reporters at Melbourne Park that as far as he was concerned, Federer was “nowhere near” the level of world number one Novak Djokovic.

The Swiss, however, said on Tuesday that he had not realised Tomic was as highly-ranked as he was and all he meant was he had the talent, but like many others needed to keep working.