Players unhappy as Spain choose Madrid for Davis Cup semi

MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) went against the wishes of the players and chose Madrid as the venue for their Davis Cup semi-final against the United States in September.

Federation president Pedro Munoz said Madrid had beaten rival candidates Benidorm, Gijon and Tenerife to hold the event after a secret ballot in which he had abstained.

Munoz confirmed Emilio Sanchez Vicario as team captain despite the fact he had sided with the players in complaining that the president had gone back on a promise to listen to their advice.

"I imagined this would happen," Sanchez Vicario told Spanish National Radio RNE.

Earlier this week Spanish players Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Carlos Moya, Tommy Robredo, Nicolas Almagro, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez signed a statement expressing their unhappiness at Munoz's handling of the decision and refusing to do promotional events for the RFET while he remains president.

"We feel obliged to make public our unease and disagreement with the president of the RFET and his management," the players said on Wednesday.

The players were reported to be unhappy that Madrid was to be chosen as the venue as they felt the city's 600 meter altitude would favor the big-serving U.S. team.

They wanted to play at sea-level where the ball would be slower, and felt that competing venues had not been given a fair shot at landing the event.

Sanchez Vicario, who also signed the statement, summed up the players' position.

"The president didn't keep his word when he said he would take into account our requests," he told Radio Marca on Friday.

In an interview with Friday's sports daily AS, Munoz defended himself: "They can say I didn't keep my promise but not that I lied.

"I have asked them to release me from my promise because I have been advised I cannot deny the event to a city that meets the requirements stipulated. It is the board who decides, not the president."

Spain play the United States on September 19-21. They have only beaten the U.S. three times in eight Davis Cup meetings, with all three coming at home, on clay and at low altitude.

Their most famous victory was in 2004 when they beat the U.S. 3-2 in the final in Seville.

(Reporting by Simon Baskett and Mark Elkington; editing by Miles Evans)