MIAMI– Roger Federer just can’t be bothered by idle talk of his terminal decline, with the two-time winner at the Miami Masters content to let his racquet speak for him on the court.

　Federer stands third on the ATP after swapping ranking spots with on-form Serb Novak Djokovic, who realistically admits that a win streak which now extends past 20 straight matches cannot go on indefinitely. Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam champion, said that he is not listening to the doomsayers in the sport who dramatically say’s he’s done. The Swiss player’s lone defeats in 2011 - all three of them against more than 20 victories - have all come at the hands of his Serbian rival.

　”It depends on who says that,” Federer said of the chatter about his game. “I don’t know if it’s 5 percent saying it, 95 percent saying it. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter too much to me if someone is saying that or not. I still think I’ve had a great six months.

“I feel like I’m playing really good tennis, and right now Novak is just a bit better than the rest. And that’s OK,”

　Federer is well-placed to absorb the normal turns and roundabouts of life in the tennis elite. He’s been there, done that on numerous occasions, “I’ve gone through phases like this on multiple occasions with Rafa (Nadal), with (Andy) Murray, with even (Andre) Agassi and (Lleyton) Hewitt and (Andy) Roddick and so forth. It’s just something that’s part of the game.”

　With the nuclear crisis in Japan still a major concern, the tennis world has taken on the job of fund-raising for the distressed country. After a charity football match last week in Florida during the start of the Miami event, a side of ATP players faced a　 semi-professional team from Fort Lauderdale, losing 4-2 with Andy Murray and Marcos Baghdatis scoring the tennis goals.

 Now organiser Djokovic is promising even more charity football from the ATP side after raising more than $100,000 was raised during the match. In addition, players collecting money in the stands at the Miami tennis a few nights later also netted another $300,000 in money and pledges from the worldwide tennis family.

  The enthusiastic Djokovic says there could be more charity games in the immediate future, especially in football-mad Europe. “This gives us ideas over the next couple of months to organise another game somewhere in Europe, maybe with some big team. I‘m not gonna say where and when,” he said, “but we have something in our minds.

　”But we‘ll have to work, definitely. We‘ll have to practise. Hopefully we can make that happen, because most of the players we love playing football. You could see that.”

  Djokovic said that building a credible team was difficult, due mainly to the fact that no one wanted to play defence. “Every single one of them wanted to be on attack. So that was a big issue before the match, how to put up a team of players who can play some defense.”

  In the end, Djokovic took on part of that burden but admitted that he will need to work on his football along with his tennis.

While Federer and Rafael Nadal did not venture onto the pitch, the Swiss says he is so far not concerned about playing a October’s Shanghai event in light of the Japan nuclear plant problem caused by last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

With the ATP Asian swing not set to begin until late September, the cautious Federer believes there is time for the health issue to settle. “That hasn‘t even crossed my mind yet. I‘ll only think about that when the situation is right in front of me,” Federer said in the wake of comments from women’s No. 2 Kim Clijsters that she would forego all Asian events in 2011 due to the radiation danger from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

  “But we‘ll get the green light or not from someone else. At the end of the day you always have to take your own decision, but I don‘t think it‘s gonna be a problem by then, to be honest.”

  Both men have Asian tournaments in September and October in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and the Shanghai Masters 1000.

　Andy Roddick agreed with Federer’s wait-and-see attitude. “I haven‘t thought about it. I would say it‘s a long way away for me. Obviously, if it‘s deemed safe, I‘ll go.”

Federer also voiced concern for the Japan situation after the earthquake and resulting tsunami.　 “It‘s always one of those natural disasters that really touch everybody (with) those terrible pictures. I‘m thinking of my good times in Tokyo when I was there,” Federer said.

  “I can only tell my Japanese fans that I‘m thinking of them as well, and that I wish them only the best and that they can rebuild and get stronger out of how it was before, because it‘s not an easy situation right now.”