Davydenko's dismal career record of five losses to Roddick and six to Blake played a significant part in Tarpishchev's strategy, which was apparently relayed to his team only on Thursday.

"I learned only a couple of minutes ago at the draw ceremony," Tursunov said of his match against Roddick whom he beat in five thrilling sets in last year's semi-final. "It is the captain's Christmas gift to me."

Tursunov, who has a 1-2 win-loss record against Roddick, felt his victory on the clay of Moscow last year would have no bearing on this week's battle on a fast, indoor surface.

"It's going to be played on a totally different surface so it's going to be quite different," he said.

U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said he had not been surprised by Davydenko's omission from the singles.

"Davydenko has been struggling a little bit with some injuries," he added. "I saw him playing in Shanghai and it seemed like his arm was still bothering him a little bit.

"One of the strengths of the Russians is that they have a lot of versatile players and it certainly wouldn't surprise me if we saw him (Davydenko) in the singles at some point over the weekend."

The team captains have the option to substitute a player up to one hour before the start of a match.

Saturday's doubles match will pit the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, against Davydenko and Igor Andreev, although the Russian line-up could be changed before then.

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