By Lauren Lynch
Photo Credit: Mark Howard

(April 19, 2011) Team Spain is disputing the court surface for the upcoming Davis Cup match in July 8-10 between Spain and the USA in Andy Roddick's hometown, Austin, Texas, because it is claimed to not be following the International Tennis Federation approved court surfaces. The team expressed they have been given a disadvantage not having practice on the Hard Premiere court surface prior to the event.

Spain's Davis Cup captain Albert Costa said to the press,  "The problem I have right now is to explain to the players what kind of court they will encounter, because even if we wanted to train on a similar one we could not install it because it is not approved."

The ITF will look into the brand of the court surface to see if it follows the regulations of the other 91 approved manufacturers and will announce it's decision on April 21. Reported by Matthew Cronin, the surface has been played on five times at USA home matches, including a face-off with Spain, and the surface is the same as European hard court surfaces but is sold under another brand name. Cronin also said that he was told that, "Spain objected to the USTA selling tickets before the site in Austin was officially approved."

Spain's and the World No. 1 Rafael Nadal was recently denied the Indian Wells and Miami Masters titles on hard-court to the victorious Novak Djokovic and no other Spanish player made it past the quarterfinals.