World number five Juan Martin Del Potro has criticized the Argentine Tennis Federation due to the latter’s Davis Cup selection process. As a result, Del Potro said that he won’t be taking part in the team’s opening round tie against Italy in 2014.
“I’m tired of being invited by mail or messages and at the same time you are pressuring me through certain [members of] the press, writing whether I will play Davis Cup or not, trying to let me look bad in front of public opinion,” del Potro wrote in his letter. “It seems a hypocritical double standard. The same thing happened last year, when any reply or failure to reply [on my part] was quickly known by some journalists. I was never consulted on the choice of captain, surfaces, offices, etc., and the one time you did it was for the series against Czech Republic in 2012, and you did not take my opinion into account.”
Del Potro last participated in a Davis Cup match in 2012 where he won three matches. His team lost to eventual champion Czech Republic in the semifinals.
“Since I began playing Davis Cup I have only played the first series of the year once, [due to] calendar and surface issues,” he wrote.
“In recent days with my team we analyzed the medical, physical and technical [issues] with very little time because of the urgent response you need. I will not play the first series against Italy.”
