Despite the 20-year-old Tomic so far having gone through the Australian summer undefeated at both the Hopman Cup in Perth and by winning his first ATP title at the Sydney International, taking on Federer in the third round of a Grand Slam was another story altogether.
Tomic had done well in the first two rounds in Melbourne beating Argentine Leonardo Mayer and then Daniel Brands, but Federer had been dominant against Benoit Paire and Nikolay Davydenko, and wasn’t going to let the top-ranked Australian off the hook either.
The world No. 2 and 17-time Grand Slam winner dominated Tomic from the start to cruise to a 6-4, 7-6, 6-1 to book a fourth round encounter with Canadian 13th seed Milos Raonic, who disposed of German Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday as well.
While Federer has won a record 17 Grand Slam titles, he went without one in 2011 and prevailed only at Wimbledon at 2012 with Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and most recently at last year's US Open Murray stepping up and winning majors of their own.
Despite being 31 years of age, though, Federer has so far shown this week in Melbourne that he has lost none of his attacking flair, shot making ability or desire to win on the big stage meaning that Murray and Djokovic, in particular, will have to be at their very best to beat him.
Federer sent Tomic an ominous warning breaking the Australian in the first game of the match and then cruising for the rest of the first set winning it 6-4. It was a much tighter contest in the second set going to a tie-break, but Federer proved too good in that winning seven points to five.
Federer then wanted an early night as he cruised through the third set 6-1 to end a match that saw him hit 46 winners and just 20 unforced errors, while bombing down 11 aces while getting 69 per cent of his first serves in for the match.
The Swiss master was pleased with his own performance, but had certainly noted plenty of improvement from Tomic from the player he knocked out of last year's Australian Open.
"I think we both played a great match. He has had a great run and really got the best out of me tonight, so I hope he can keep it up," Federer said.
"He's a big guy and he's got a lot of power and a big serve and he uses it well. He'll be tough to beat in the future, that's for sure.
"It's important to take the right things out of a loss because usually you learn more when you lose," said Federer, noting Tomic was a vastly more difficult proposition than 12 months ago. He's more mature, a bit more power at times. It's hard to explain; it's just the whole package is a bit better."
Tomic was far from disgraced and did not play poorly, but once again Federer showed that he is a class above.
He admitted Federer's introduction to the crowd had freaked him out early and contributed to his nervy start.
"I try to block out who's on the other side of the net, but couldn't quite do it after that announcement. A lot of players, when you play these sort of players like Roger or Novak, you lose belief before you get into the match," Tomic said.
"Eighty or 90 per cent of players that play the top guys, like with Roger, you lose your belief. I got in there, I started to think after they mentioned all these grand slams leading up - Wimbledon champion six times, six times US Open champion ... Then I was: 'Oh, crap, it's Roger.'
"Then that first service game was important. I lost it. Then I was like: 'Oh, no.' I was pretty satisfied with my tennis. I was competing out there, trying to hang in there with him. He just came up with good stuff when he really needed it the most."