Federer says a star's legacy isn't at risk with late decline

Roger Federer arrives for his interview at the precise appointed time, steering his white sedan into a parking spot in an industrial area dotted by art galleries about 15 minutes from his luxury apartment in this home-away-from-home.

After obliging a selfie request from someone on the street, Federer makes his way up to a second-story loft area and sits. He crosses his legs, kneads his right calf and winces.

"Just started training. I'm surprised I could walk the stairs as good as I have," Federer says with a laugh.

"My calves are, like, killing me. Just getting back into it. The shock on the body is, I don't want to say 'immense,' every time, but I've been on vacation for two weeks. The shock just hits you hard."
But now? The "waves," he calls them, making an undulating motion with his famous right arm -- time on, then time off -- offer his body a chance to recover. They also let him "go through the wall" on the day before a rest period, because "otherwise, you maybe would hold back just ever so slightly, because you just don't know how you're going to feel the next day."
"People, I don't think, anyway, remember what were the last matches of a John McEnroe, what were the last matches of a Stefan Edberg. Nobody knows. They remember that they won Wimbledon, that they won this and that, they were world No. 1. I don't think the end, per se, is that important."
"It's a bit different (now) that I know I'm at the back end of my career. But I feel like I've been toward 'the back end of my career' for a long, long time."
Yet Federer sticks to his role as "the chief 'getting the kids ski-ready' operator guy."
"But sure, sometimes with family planning, discussions with my wife, we talk a little bit sometimes. But never like, 'What if?' Or, 'What are we going to do?' Because I always think, like, we have time for that and then we'll figure it out when that moment comes."
"It would help make my job easier," Godsick says in a telephone interview. "I don't want to know for my own personal travel. Or I don't want to know to have the scoop before anyone else. I want to know so I can plan. ... I mean, he won't go on a retirement tour, but I'd like to have some advance notice, maybe throw some more cameras around when he's out playing, so we can capture some more footage."
Godsick pauses, then spaces out the next five words for emphasis: "But. He. Really. Doesn't. Know."