MADRID, may 7:Rafael Nadal and the rest of the Spanish Davis Cup team accused their federation president Wednesday of deceiving them in the process for selecting the venue for the semi-final series against the United States.

Nadal was among eight Spanish players and captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario who signed an open letter denouncing Pedro Munoz’s dealings in choosing the host city for the September 19-21 matchup.

The players are upset that the Spanish federation appears to favour Madrid because of sponsorship money, despite concerns that the capital city’s high altitude could take away the team’s home-court advantage.

“We feel it is our obligation to make public our uneasiness and disagreement with the president of the RFET, Pedro Munoz, and his management in which he has continued to deceive us in the decisions taken since the beginning of his mandate,” the letter said, adding that Munoz has “deceived some, if not all, of the candidate cities into believing that they had a chance of holding the tie when, in all moments, they never really had a chance.”

Sanchez Vicario and the eight players, who include fifth-ranked David Ferrer, former French Open champion Carlos Moya and former top-ranked player Juan Carlos Ferrero, stopped short of asking Munoz to resign. However, they said they will boycott all promotional events for the Spanish federation and its sponsors as long as Munoz remains president.

Munoz said he had no plans to step down, and that he had done nothing wrong. “It’s not the first time nor last time that we will have disagreements,” Munoz said.

Madrid’s sudden place as the front-runner comes just about three months after the city’s tourist office signed up as a key sponsor with the Davis Cup through 2010. Madrid is also bidding to host the 2016 Olympics.

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