Although he was considered an important figure in this tournament for years, Federer is at an advanced age, and it is hard to expect that he would want to pick up a racket again. The Swiss points out that he is proud to be back in Australia and there is no doubt that he always enjoys coming to this country.

Twenty-time major winner Roger Federer, who in 2009 completed the career slam, likened Alcaraz's pursuit of the feat to golf star Rory McIlroy's triumph at the Masters, which secured him the career slam in the PGA Tour.

It underlines how dominant Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are in men’s tennis that the great Roger Federer felt compelled to namecheck Brazil’s João Fonseca to break the duopoly.Speaking days before

During his third‑set match against American up‑and‑comer Nishesh Basavareddy, Ofner appeared to have the match all but wrapped up. After splitting the first two sets, the contest entered a decisive match tiebreak, which at this stage of qualifiers is played to 10 points, not the usual seven.

Roger Federer said on Thursday that Carlos Alcaraz winning the Australian Open to complete the career Grand Slam aged just 22 would be "crazy".