United States’ decision to drop its top doubles player Rajeev Ram from the Davis Cup team has ignited tensions between Tommy Paul (who was picked for the team) and Rajeev Ram. There was a free spot in the team but US Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish decided not to fill the spot with Ram.

The USA went on to lose to Italy. The team lost a deciding doubles match after the two singles matches were split. Tommy Paul and Jack Sock played the deciding double match and lost to Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli. After the match, Ram expressed his frustration with a tweet.

Rajeev Ram played a key role in the early rounds which helped the US to qualify. But Paul said on Twitter that Rajeev Ram struggles against top singles players. It’s a moot point since Ram only plays doubles these days and the team had an extra spot that it chose not to fill with Ram. Tommy Paul took a dig at Rajeev Ram on social media.

Captain Mardy Fish stood by his decision to drop Ram from the team, saying:

We’ve got a lot of great players that play for the U.S. Rajeev is one of them. He wasn’t on the team this year, and that’s my choice. This is the team that I put on the court, and so if anyone has an issue with that, that’s on me. Rajeev has played. He’s played and he’s played well. He’s played for us a few times with Jack, and this is a team that I was excited to see. Also, Jack and Frances are a phenomenal team. They have played and beaten some really good teams in some competitions as well, and so we had a lot of options. This was the team we went with today. But if Rajeev was here or not, those guys were going to win today. They played well and they’re too good.