Russia have defended the absence of their best 13 players from this weekend’s Fed Cup tie with Australia as a youth policy.
Team captain Anastasia Myskina says a decision was taken not to ask big guns such as Maria Sharapova to play the tournament.
The Russians will be spearheaded by world No.158 Victoria Kan despite the nation boasting six players in the top 35, including world No.5 Sharapova.
“We didn’t even ask because they have a good schedule this year,” former world No.2 Myskina told reporters in Hobart.
“We decided from this year to start having a connection with the young players.
“All of the girls who are top-20 have played Fed Cup for many years, most of them won once or twice the Fed Cup title.
“We were thinking and decided that this year it’s going to be a new one for Russia, it’s going to be young ones.”
Most of Russia’s big guns were competing in WTA tour events in Doha or Paris, Myskina said, making travel an issue.
Only world No.23 Ekaterina Makarova was asked to play the World Group first round tie in Hobart, but was unavailable with a shoulder injury.
The youngest member of the Russian squad, 16-year-old Veronika Kudermetova, has two years left at school and is ranked 650th in the world.
Myskina said the squad represented the next generation for the tennis powerhouse.
“We call (Kudermetova) an angel because she looks like an angel,” she said.
“Irina (Khromacheva) looks like Vera Zvonareva, Valeria (Solovyeva) looks like Maria a little bit.
“All of them really have good potential.”
Australian team captain Alicia Molik said while she was unaware of the reasons for the absences, players generally relished an opportunity to wear their national colours.
“All I can say is they’re missing out, missing out on a week to be part of a team,” she said.
“There’s few and far between moments you put on the green-and-gold or the red-white-and-blue.
“It’s nice to know our team really put value on that.
“Maybe some of the top players in Russia take a different view but I know a lot of the players through history really cherish the times they represent their nations.”
World No.259 Solovyeva, who lost in singles to Australia’s Casey Dellacqua and in doubles to Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty at Wimbledon last year, said the Russians were in Australia to win the tie.
“We will try our best to prove there are big upcoming players and a big future in Russia,” she said.
“We’re here, obviously, to win and nothing but that.
“So we will just fight for the honour of our country.”