There is hope for us all. Roger Federer, the man who transformed tennis, believes it’s OK to make mistakes. He just doesn’t make many of them.

The Swiss remains a live contender even at the age of 34, more than four years after he won the last of his 17 grand slam titles.

Yesterday, he was not at his most fluent best but was still too good for Grigor Dimitrov, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the last 16, having lost in the third round 12 months ago.

Federer has won in Melbourne four times, albeit not since 2010, and holds numerous records in the sport.

Yesterday he added another, reaching 300 victories in grand slams, head and shoulders above the rest and perhaps the most incredible record of them all.

From the outside, Federer would seem to have had a perfect career, winning slam after slam and raking in the cash off the court, a marketer’s dream. Even his hair is perfect.

But as he contemplated his 300 wins – and you can bet that he can probably remember a good 280 of them in detail – Federer revealed that it had not all been easy in his early days.

“I made a lot of mistakes,” he said. “I wish I could have maybe been tougher when I was younger in practice but I guess that's just how it needed to be. It needed to be genius or horrible. I needed to have that wide spectrum. I needed to make mistakes to become the player I am today.

“In a way I would do it again the same way, with just some minor adjustments along the way. But I had unbelievable coaching, support team, parents, wife, and everybody around me throughout. It's been amazing. I've been truly privileged to have the experience. It's OK to make mistakes.”

While Rafa Nadal won the French Open at the age of 19, Federer was 21 by the time he won his first grand slam, a relatively late developer. He made up for lost time quickly but he said players coming through now have it tough.

“You’ve got to work hard, even harder now, it seems like,” he said. “There are more professional tennis players than ever. The depth is greater. Talent takes you only so far.

“But the rest of it is you have to teach yourself and learn it, get it right. You’ve got to be patient, as well. Can't expect to win slams at 16, 17, 18 anymore these days, sky-rocket through the rankings, unless you're out of this world.”

Novak Djokovic’s tennis has been pretty other-wordly in the past 18 months, winning three grand slams in 2015 and sitting on top of the rankings with twice as many points as Andy Murray in the No 2 spot.

The Serb didn’t have things all his own way yesterday, though, battling past Andreas Seppi of Italy, the man who put out Federer at the same stage 12 months ago.

After breezing through the first set, Djokovic had to fight in the second and saved two set points in the third before claiming a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 victory to set up a meeting with Frenchman Gilles Simon.

“I must be pleased with a straight-set win because both sets, especially the third, could have gone a different way,” he said.

“But I'm still not very satisfied with certain parts of the second and third set. I think I could have done better.

“But, again, I played a quality player who took out Federer last year here and who has been on the tour for many years. He is not afraid to play big tennis on a big stage. He likes it, I think.”

Djokovic admitted that the expectations have gone through the roof after 2015, a year in which only defeat by Stan Wawrinka in the final of the French Open stopped him from winning all four grand slams.

“It's almost like anything aside from a title or a final is not a success,” he said. “Somehow, even though you don't think that way personally, there's a kind of just an energy, a feeling around you that is created by people close to you, the media, the tennis world, so forth, because of this high expectation.

“I guess it's all in your mind. That's why I've been trying to keep the same team of people around me and follow the kind of a lifestyle that I think works for me well, that got me to where I am.

“I try not to pay too much attention to certain speculation, predictions and so forth, because that can cause a distraction that I don't need. I don't need an additional pressure because pressure is part of what we do and it's already there. It's present. It comes in big portions, especially in the grand slams.”

Japan’s Kei Nishikori continues to be under the radar, just the way he likes it, despite a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain that put him into the fourth round and a clash with former runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.

And there was disappointment for Australia as Nick Kyrgios was beaten 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 by the sixth seed Tomas Berdych. “I was just trying to keep myself focused, not look too much over the net,” he said. “I think I did a pretty good job with that.”