Chilean Fernando Gonzalez's Australian Open heroics will lift him into the world top five for the first time in his career, but he is already looking higher.

Despite losing to world No.1 Roger Federer in Sunday night's final, Gonzalez will climb four places from his current No.9 position when rankings are released on Monday, courtesy of his unexpected but dazzling run to the final.

"It's really big for me and I know that I can go forward, so this tournament was really important for me, not only the numbers but my game," Gonzalez said.

"I've been playing really good tennis, with my coach I made four finals in the last five tournaments.

"I'm at a good level, I'm still improving and I feel like I can still improve in other things."

The 26-year-old's list of scalps was impressive, downing four world top 20 players in succession before running into Federer.

He grabbed public attention with a breathtaking four set dismissal of Australia's best player Lleyton Hewitt in the third round, following that with increasingly comprehensive straight sets wins over James Blake, Rafael Nadal and Tommy Haas.

It was a remarkable achievement given he had not made it past the quarter-finals of a grand slam before this event, or past the fourth round at the Australian Open - and went out in the first round at Melbourne Park last year to lowly-ranked Russian Alex Bogomolov.

Gonzalez gives much of the credit to veteran coach Larry Stefanki, who has guided him since May last year and helped him climb into the top 10 for the first time.

The Chilean credits Stefanki with helping him to improve his backhand, his patience and point construction, the variety in his game and his fitness.

Stefanki formerly guided another Chilean, Marcelo Rios, to No.1, having done the same with American John McEnroe and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Gonzalez believes he has the game and the room for improvement to also reach the pinnacle.

"Of course I have the tennis to be No.1," he said.

But he acknowledged Federer, who has now beaten him in all 10 of their career meetings, provided an enormous obstacle to that goal, although he did not believe it was insurmountable.

"I lost 10 times to him already, but every match is a new match, so I have to try next week, I have to try every match," he said.

Despite Sunday night's loss, Gonzalez made some national history as only the second Chilean to reach the Australian Open final, after Rios in 1998.

It was not his first piece of Chilean history.

He won the nation's first Olympic gold medal in any sport at the Athens Games in 2004, when he and compatriot Nicolas Massu took out the men's doubles competition.

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