Inevitable follow-up enquiry: so, why not? "Well, to be honest with you, I would love to lie and say yes, I work harder, but really I don't and that's the one thing I need to do this year. I think [in 2015] I've worked a little bit harder and much much more smarter than previously, and that's gotten me to where I've gotten, but to be top five in the world you need to work crazy hard and crazy smart."

Tomic has, frankly, done neither of those things at the age of 23, and yet he finds himself as the Australian No.1 heading into his eighth grand slam at Melbourne Park and 24th major, anywhere. He is not a dietary fanatic, a peel-the-skin-off-the-chicken type. He likes good times, and plenty of them.

Does he ever ask himself how he got inside the world's top 20 without really, well, putting in? "Actually a few players in the locker-room always say they never see me in the gym or this and this. It's a good question, because I think going to the gym for 20 minutes, that's enough from my standards, but really you need to work hours and hours a day to be up there with the guys that are now in the top four, five, dominating tennis.

"You need to work hard. If I want to stay 15 in the world, 20, 30 in the world all my life I can stay there with the talent I have but obviously [2015] has been the best year, I've learnt so much, but to get to the top five I need to work a little harder."

A little or a lot. It's fair to say that nose-to-the-grindstone is not Tomic's preferred position. Hilariously, when Rafael Nadal was captured in Delhi being told by his IPTL teammate, Rohan Bopanna, that Tomic would be joining the Indian Aces' line-up for the final week of competition, the Spanish grindstone-nuzzler clutched his head dramatically and laughingly declared: "close the bar during the night!" Bopanna, the Indian doubles star, made a joke about Tomic asking where the party was, and wanting to be there for it. Suffice to say that the Gold Coaster is known more for his natural talent than his spartan lifestyle and train-a-holic tendencies.

"You hear things about Bernie and his training, or lack of training," former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash said during Tomic's run to the Brisbane semi-finals. "I don't know first hand, but he trained very hard this time last year, and by all accounts he's worked reasonably hard here. If every tournament was at Pat Rafter Arena or Rod Laver Arena, he'd be a top-five player in the world, wouldn't he? But that's not the case. But [top 20] is a very good effort. It's another step up."

Goran Ivanisevic, another past king of the All England Club, says: "I always said that Bernard is a guy who should be top 10 a long time ago. If Bernard can be serious like he's serious during these couple of tournaments in Australia even for half of the year, he'll be top 10 ... I don't know why he's trying 200 per cent only in Australia. He is such a talented player. He has a game that nobody likes. He's got much more serious ahead of the last year and hopefully he's going to improve more and more."

Former Davis Cup coach Josh Eagle describes Tomic as a "unique character", and one of the most talented in the game, but one who has reached a significant career-best ranking without really scratching the surface, and he's probably the first to admit it, as well.

"So if he can go round and just do things just a little bit better on and off the court and in everything he does, I'm pretty optimistic he can crack the top 10 [in 2016]. That's how good he is. And I think he's getting there. He knows he's never going to be a 10/10 the way he trains, with his diet, and all those little things, but he's just trying to get a little bit better at those small things every day, every week, and that will eventually add up."

Despite some positive signs, including superior movement and shot selection and a bigger serve, Roger Federer wants to see Tomic's talk traded for more significant results. Certainly, there is particular scope to improve at the slams, where in 2015 he logged just eight wins from four tournaments, having slogged through 24 non-majors, defending his Colombian Open title, and reaching his first Masters 1000 quarter-finals elsewhere.

He insists he is training smarter rather than necessarily harder, is building a stock of experience, learning as he goes. "At the end of the day I'm not going to be a player who plays five hours on court and not miss a ball. I play differently, I serve well and take points away from you, so I have to use this one, two hours on court what I have and do as best as I can, and focus on the little things I need to improve. I think I've been doing the little things right."

And, of course, a few things wrong, even if the Miami police eventually dropped the party-boy charges laid while Tomic was suspended from the Davis Cup quarter-final for an ill-advised outburst against the Tennis Australia hierarchy, and there are also competing versions of events from his practice controversy on the Gold Coast in the first week of the season.

"Bernie's been gradually getting it together a little bit more each year, and I think [with] the couple of shocks that he had this year he's maturing," John Newcombe said before the medal ceremony bearing his name. "[Novak] Djokovic said it the best, I think: that he needs to get fitter, to be able to move that big body around and just keep playing with a little bit more power, and there's no reason why he can't be in the top 10."

Much like his buddy, Nick Kyrgios, the fact that everyone has an opinion on Tomic guarantees some interesting responses when his name is mentioned, despite some more positive recent reviews. Rod Laver, the greatest Australian male player of all, reflects the older-school view – mystified at times by some slightly passive "slow-motion", Laver calls them – tactics in what remains an unusual but also effective game.

"Sometimes he hits the ball hard and next minute he'll slip one in soft and yes, it's trying to upset an opponent's rhythm, and that's good. But I think sometimes you need to also just buckle down and say 'I'm gonna win now. I've got through all that, now I'm gonna win the match'," says Laver. "And it doesn't look like that's what he's trying to do. He's still sort of fiddling around til yes he won the match but that seems to be the way Tomic is."

Last year, he travelled less with his father, John, other than a Madrid-Rome-Paris stretch and another few weeks at Wimbledon, and more with hitting partner James Nabhen, whom he describes as "a friend of mine's friend" from Miami. In Brisbane, Tomic senior remained just an hour's drive away at home on the Gold Coast, concentrating his coaching efforts these days on his 454th-ranked daughter Sara. Still, it was slightly curious that there was no appearance when the action was so close.

Still, the Tomic men communicate regularly, during tournaments and between them, apparently. "We talk on the phone, and communicate and obviously my dad's been trying to help as much as he can. He's with my sister now giving her the best opportunity. But it's interesting. Me, I don't get along with the coaching strategies. Some players are very tough to coach, and me, I'm one of those players, but James and I get along very good, and that's important, I think."

Does a change from his father's rather rigid approach give him the freedom he needs? "My father's very strong there, he's constantly on you, and that's for my sister very important now. if she wants to get there she has to focus with him as much as she can … You have to be free but also I had such a good relationship with my father from the young age and now he understood he needs to be there for my sister more, but we talk every day, he still helps me as much as he can."

The Ks, Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, are often cited as the best thing to happen to Tomic, pushing him along, challenging his status as the top-ranked Australian and inevitable successor to Lleyton Hewitt. Kokkinakis, the junior to Kyrgios by a year, is out for several months following shoulder surgery, but Tomic believed he was still a step behind, regardless.

"I think Thanasi has a long way to go, that's for sure, to get anywhere near Nick and I," Tomic said before his Davis Cup teammate's latest injury blow. "He has to improve, and I wish him the best, but obviously Nick being there has encouraged me as well. He's a fantastic friend of mine and he's an interesting player, he's an unusual player, like myself, and we get along. I really like hanging around with Nick, and he really likes the way I play, he really enjoys every time we get on court."

There was talk for a time of the young duo buying matching luxury cars, and both have spoken positively of the other during the Open lead-up. Each is without a travelling coach in the traditional sense, and neither is a pin-up boy from an image point of view, clearly. But just as there are signs of the penny dropping for Kyrgios in terms of on-court behaviour, Tomic seems to be settling off the court.

"He's starting to become his own man, his own person, and work towards building his own team, and a bit of continuity there, and consistency," says Eagle. "Once he gets there and gets some people around him who can get the absolute best out of him and squeeze all that talent, he should have a great career and should be around for a long time."

In mid-2014, he was on very shaky ground at No.128, six months after the double hip surgery that had initial consequences, but longer-term benefits. "It's not easy and I expected that, but this was all cos of the benefit of the labrum repair being more flexible in that area of the hip, which before I was really really stiff and tight and I couldn't move at all," Tomic says. "So that helped astonishingly, and I feel great now."

Tomic admits that after reaching the 2011 Wimbledon quarter-finals as an 18-year-old, he thought he would be in the top 15 by the time he turned 19. But getting this close has taken far longer to reach than expected, and there were points along the way when Tomic wondered whether it ever would. He lacked consistency, application, etc, etc. Indeed, it is hard to imagine he will ever get everything quite right.

Yes/no question to self, then: given that we have heard so many of these messages before, is it really going to be different this time? Answer: pass, for that is something only Tomic can know. Still, it will be a mighty fine celebration if it all comes together during a grand slam fortnight; should fitness and focus over seven best-of-five set matches ever come together at the right time.

Have no doubt, Rohan Bopanna, that Bernie will know where the party is. And no, Rafa, the bar won't be closing that night.