Marcelo Rios Resigns from Chile's Davis Cup Team. Here is why...

Former World No. 1 Marcelo Rios, of Chile, has resigned from the Chilean Davis Cup team due to differences with the leadership of the Chilean Tennis Federation, headed by Sergio Elías, according to La Tercera. As a result, Rios will not travel to Stockholm for the Davis Cup tie against Sweden.

While it was reported that Rios would not travel to Stockholm due to budget issues, Rios himself updated the Chilean daily with an audio exchange with Elias in which he was told by Elias that Chilean player Cristian Garin is asking for more money to play the Davis Cup which is why they cannot get him to travel to Stockholm as well.

According to La Tercera, the audio says, “Marcelo, how are you? Sergio Elias. I tell you that because Christian has asked us for a higher figure than we had agreed last year, we have a very limited budget, so we have no conditions to offer you to go to Sweden, to Stockholm, because practically the income of the Federation has been reduced considerably by the higher price that Christian has requested to participate. I'm sorry, my dear Marcelo. For me I have always wanted you to be, but unfortunately I do not have the resources, we have no way to do it. We were studying with the board and we have nowhere to get funds. Not for tickets, not at all. Sorry for this time. Anything, we are in touch and thank you for your good predisposition. ”

Rios adds that he was exposing the Whatsapp audio to expose the lies of Elias. "I don't do this for me, I do it for the team. Because, just as you threw this lie, you can throw any other. He is not a guy who says things head-on. I didn't like him telling me I was not going, without even asking me if we could reach an arrangement. I could have paid for the tickets and the stay and then we arranged when we qualified to Madrid. But he didn't give me that possibility.  While a president is lying, I am not in the Davis Cup team. I did not have to do it, it was not necessary. I would have preferred that Elijah had told me the truth, but not that he was inventing that Garin was asking for more money. I talked to Garin and he told me that everything was a lie, that he wasn't charging more. He was very surprised when he knew this. The rest of the team was also very surprised. With this I realized that apparently I am not so indispensable or so important. I did not feel supported by the team at the time, but beyond that, I am doing this so that they realize who the president is."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2I68guR