The once-dominant United States has 31 Davis Cup titles but none in 12 years, the longest span without an American victory. Pete Sampras last led the team to victory over Russia on clay in Moscow in 1995.

Russia’s captain Shamil Tarpischev pulled a surprise at the draw, leaving fourth-ranked Davydenko out of the singles matches — setting up the first match between Roddick and Tursunov.

Tarpischev didn’t say whether he’d stay with Davydenko and Andreev as his doubles team on Saturday.

“I haven’t thought about it except that the ones that I have posted to play, and that is Andreev and Davydenko,” the captain said.

Davydenko comes into the Davis Cup final at the center of an investigation into unusual betting patterns during a loss to Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina in August.

Betfair, an online gambling company, voided all bets on the match after unusually large amounts were wagered on the lowly ranked Argentine throughout the contest in Poland, even after he lost the first set 6-1. Davydenko retired with an injury in the third set.

Davydenko denies the allegations.

No. 34 Tursunov is the lowest-ranked member of the Russian team, following Davydenko, No. 19 Youzhny and No. 33 Andreev.

“The Americans have very good chances tomorrow,” Tarpischev said through a translator. “But as they say, the ball is round so anything can happen.”

Both Davis Cup teams include the same players from the semifinals, when the United States beat Sweden 4-1 and Russia defeated Germany 3-2.

The United States last hosted the Davis Cup final in 1992, in Fort Worth, Texas. Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe defeated Switzerland.

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Memorial Coliseum, which seats about 12,800, has hosted two previous Davis Cup events, in 1981 and 1984, both U.S. semifinal victories over Australia.

Friday’s event was full of pageantry — as well as enthusiastic fans. With an obviously pro-United States crowd, the Russians had their own smaller, but very boisterous, contingent.

Billie Jean King presided over the coin toss for Roddick’s match, and Nike co-founder Phil Knight was among the spectators.

Should the U.S. win the doubles match, the reverse singles on Sunday would be shortened to best-of-three sets.

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