WATCH—Roger Federer - 99 Titles and Counting:

Roger Federer brushed off questions about Julien Benneteau's comments that he gets special privileges from tournaments, while the Australian Open also defended its scheduling decisions around the 20-time Grand Slam champion.



The recently-retired Benneteau, speaking to French radio station RMC, addressed conflicts of interest in the sport, noting that Tennis Australia is an investor in the Laver Cup. The Frenchman then said Federer had played almost all his Australian Open matches in cooler night conditions during the previous two years.



Federer did not appear pleased when the topic was brought up in his press conference at the ATP Finals, though acknowledged he was aware of the comments.



"I don't really feel in the mood during a World Tour Finals to discuss that topic, to be honest," he said, adding that a lot of it was not in context. "The radio interview that happened more than a week ago that surfaces now in French, Julien, who is a nice guy, I know him since the junior times."



Asked if his agent, Tony Godsick, spoke to organizers about scheduling at the US Open, Federer considered the question.



"I get asked, ‘Would you like to play Monday or Tuesday?’ sometimes. Sometimes I get asked, ‘Do you want to play day or night? Sometimes they go ask the agent. Sometimes they ask me, Asia wants you to play at night. So sometimes we have our say," he said. "But I asked to play Monday at the US Open. I played Tuesday night. It’s all good, you know. I’ve had that problem for 20 years, in a good way.



"Sometimes I get help, sometimes I don’t and I think there you have it. Sometimes they come ask, sometimes they don’t.



"A lot of the facts are not right [in the comments], from what I heard."





In a statement, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said Federer was "widely regarded as one of the biggest ‘box office’ athletes in the world" and scheduled in accordance with his popularity.



"He has been regularly voted Australia’s favorite athlete. The fans demand his appearance in the big stadiums and our broadcasters naturally want his matches to air in primetime," he said. "I don’t think there’s a tournament director in the world who’s not going to take those factors into account when setting the schedule. This is the case with all the big names in tennis, and in sport in general."



Tennis Australia's involvement with Laver Cup was also mentioned, though Tiley did not address the question of a conflict of interest.

"Tennis Australia is justly proud of the success of the Laver Cup, in which we certainly have a share, along with the USTA and other partners," he said.



During his radio interview, Benneteau called Federer an "icon," but criticized his association with the event that is partly owned by Federer's agency.



"Now, when he promotes the Laver Cup, there are a number of conflicts of interest that have become disturbing," the French player said. "With regard to the new Davis Cup, he says nothing about the date in November. When the date of September was mentioned, he woke up and opposed Gerard Pique.



"This is where I find that the tennis authorities are incredibly weak. His thing, it’s an exhibition; there is no sporting criteria in the selection. It gives $750,000 to Nick Kyrgios. Yes, those are the amounts.



"Another thing—in the organization of this event, there’s Craig Tiley, the boss of the Australian Open, who deals with marketing and TV rights. He is paid by Roger Federer’s agent and on the back of that, as luck would have it, Federer played 12 of his 14 matches at 7:30 pm.



"This year, at the US Open, they were inaugurating the new Louis Armstrong Court, it seems that Tony Godsick went to the umpire’s office to essentially say ‘No way are you scheduling him there.' It's normal he should have privileges, but it's a bit excessive."



Subsequently, Benneteau wrote a clarification on social media, saying, "I am just saying that we should avoid as much conflict of interest as possible to keep a certain sporting equality. It is nothing personal towards Federer."



1)Juste pour clarifier les choses , je dis juste qu’il faut éviter au maximum les conflits d’intérêt afin de préserver une certaine équité sportive , il n’y a rien de personnel envers Roger Federer car je suis le premier à dire que c’est le plus grand... — julien benneteau (@julienbenneteau) November 13, 2018



Novak Djokovic, who had objected to not being scheduled on Centre Court at Wimbledon, nevertheless questioned the assertion Federer had been given too much preference.



"Look, that's debatable really, because in a way he deserves the special treatment because he's a six-time champion of the Australian Open and arguably the best player ever. If he doesn't have it, who is going to have it," the Serb said. "People want to see him play on the center court, and they want to see him play in showtime, the best hours, which is 7:30 at night in Rod Laver Arena."



But Djokovic also added that "in certain tournaments" some players did appear to consistently get more consideration than others.

"To be honest, I mean, I understand Julien's point because sometimes it does seem that maybe certain players get more favored," he said. "You kind of have to follow the pattern to really understand whether there is a case or not.



"Again, on the other side, you have to understand that also Federer is a driving force of tennis in terms of revenue, in terms of attention, in terms of all these different things. Julien and guys like him are also benefitting from tennis, because of Roger, because of what he has done for the sport."



John Isner, who is also playing the ATP Finals, went further.



"The top players, they sell the most tickets therefore they should get the most. That's what I think. So I don't think there's a favoritism system like that at all. I think those guys are the ones that, by and large, carry our sport in a big way and they deserve everything they've ever earned," he said.



"So again, if anything, they maybe should get more special treatment because those guys, the top players, have made other players below them a lot of money. It is like the Tiger Woods effect in golf.



"So you can look at a guy like Roger. He is men's tennis in my opinion."

This Week on Tennis Channel:

ATP Finals (Sun - Sun 11.11 - 11.18) - Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and the world's best collide in the season Finale. Live coverage begins on Tennis Channel Sunday at 7:00am EST.