Kyrgios enters this week’s tournament seeded 14th, three places ahead of Federer.

The 21-year-old is coming off his best year on tour having climbed as high as 13th in the world rankings.

But the 17-time grand slam winner said Kyrgios was not yet up to claiming his first major, especially on home soil.  

"So for me to start talking about him winning the tournament, Lleyton [Hewitt] never did it, and he was two times world No.1 at the end of the year. So I know [Kyrgios] has got a big game, but he has to beat four, five amazing players. Can he do that right now? I'm not sure,” Federer told Fairfax.

“He can beat them, but not back to back to back to back to back, maybe. But I'm happy if he proves me wrong."

The four-time Australian Open winner said time would tell if the Aussie had a grand slam win in him.

“All the questions get answered in the first five years on tour and I think he's going through that process, still, and I think he's been told by so many people, everybody comes out and says 'urrr, Nick needs to do this, Nick needs to do that',” he said.  

“I find it's too much sometimes, and I know everybody gets asked about him, and it's natural because he's a great player, but I think at the one point he also gets a bit like 'OK, it's enough already, I feel like I need to make my experiences myself, good or bad I need to figure it out', and I think that's the process that he is right now."