Roger Federer not close to retiring

It was a leading question, of course. But when Roger Federer was asked during Thursday's teleconference promoting his March 5 exhibition at Madison Square Garden if he would like to see the year-end men's tennis championships return to New York, he said "yes."

A qualified "yes."

"I would love for it to happen," the 16-time Grand Slam event champion said. "We have a great world tour finals at the moment [the past three years] in London, and also in Shanghai [the previous four years] was extraordinary. And Houston [2003 and 2004].

"There's many great places the world tour finals could go. But it would be great to go back to the roots, where McEnroe and Lendl and Borg played. I don't know if it's going to happen. I hope the tour will consider it and that New York would be interested in hosting it.

"The players and the fans and media would love it. But, for now, London is a very hot place to play."

The Garden was site of the year-end tournament from 1977 through 1989 before it spent 10 years in two German cities, Frankfurt and Hanover, then bounced to Lisbon and Sydney on its way to Shanghai.

Not until the first of the annual one-night exhibitions in 2008, when Federer played Pete Sampras, did the sport return to the Garden. This year, Federer will play Andy Roddick, and Maria Sharapova will play Caroline Wozniacki at the Garden event.

Whether Federer still would be on tour if and when the championships came back to Gotham also is an unknown. But Federer promised Thursday he has "no plans at all to retire."

He acknowledged that "three or four years ago, I did say I would definitely play until the London Olympics [this summer], but mostly to get the journalists off my back.

"I won't be retiring after the London Olympics. I hope to be playing many more years to come. Haven't set a date or thought about it in any way. In fact, I'm hoping now to play Rio" -- host city for the2016 Olympics in Brazil.