Former world No.1 Marcelo Rios is among a group of senior Chilean players and officials that have published a public letter asking for support from their government following Santiago Giraldo’s controversial Davis Cup exit.
Chile was given the win in their clash against Colombia after Giraldo was disqualified. The world No.150 argued throughout the match that the conditions at the Centro Recreacional de Ejercito Huayquique in Chile were poor and unsafe. Despite Giraldo’s argument, he was defaulted and lost his match, handing the win to the hosts. The incident has resulted in a big fallout in the Chilean tennis circuit and it is understood that Colombia has launched a formal complaint to the International Tennis Federation.
In light of the recent incident, Rios and other top tennis officials have publicly called for support in improving the conditions of the facilities in the country.
“During the Davis Cup, we experienced the worst humiliation for the players. Not only was our opponents playing on a field that was unworthy of this competition, (…) but in addition, we had the impression of overlooking the conditions.” The statement read.
Rios was just one out of eight tennis officials to sign the strongly worded letter. Other signatures included Nicolas Massu, Fernando González, Gonzalo Lama, Hans Podlipnik, Nicolas Jarry, Juan Carlos Sáez and Christian Garin. They have said that the condition of the courts in the country are so bad, that they are the ‘laughing stock’ of South America.
“We can not tolerate that our players are the laughing stock of South America and that we present to the world a face that suggests that we are less than nothing.”
Chile has a rich history in tennis. In 1937 Anita Lizana became the from woman from Latin American to win a grand slam title at the U.S Championships. Rios became the first male from that part of the world to reach world No.1 in 1998. Both Rios and Gonzalez have reached the final at the Australian Open. The country has also won four Olympic medals in the sport (two golds, a silver and a bronze).
The current state of Chilean tennis is a shadow of its former self. Currently there are just five players ranked inside the top-400 and only one in the top-200. Gonzalo Lama is currently their highest ranked player at 164th in the world.
