Russia without top players vs Italy in Fed Cup

MOSCOW (AP) Russia will be missing its best players when it faces a full-strength Italy in the Fed Cup final in Cagliari, Sardinia next week.

When the teams were announced on Wednesday, Russia named its 12th highest-ranked player, Alexandra Panova, as its main singles player for the Nov. 2-3 final.

Panova, ranked 138th, will be making her Fed Cup debut, along with Irina Khromacheva (231st) and Margarita Gasparyan (317th).

Only former top-20 player Alisa Kleybanova, fallen to 186th, has played Fed Cup, three years ago.

By contrast, Italy will send out its four best players, Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta and Karin Knapp, with no room for 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone. All of them are ranked in the top 50.

"We practically have no chance to win the title," Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev said. "We are going not to win but to warm up our young players."

Maria Kirilenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina, who led Russia to its sixth final in 10 years, all preferred to appear in the Tournament of Champions in Bulgaria opening next Tuesday.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova refused to play for personal reasons, while No. 3-ranked Maria Sharapova has ruled herself out for the rest of the year with a shoulder injury.

Tarpischev told Russian daily Sport-Express he cannot blame the players for their refusal to play.

"We are not football or ice hockey players. Even if we win in Cagliari, no one will pay much attention to our victory," he said.

Italy has won the title three times. Russia is a four-time champion and beat Italy in the 2007 final.