7 February 2014 | Tennis West

Sam Stosur’s first rubber in Australia’s Fed Cup campaign will be against Russia’s 16-year-old world No.650 Veronika Kudermetova.

The Russians have pulled a surprise by naming their youngest squad member to play singles, along with world No.241 Irina Khromacheva.

Casey Dellacqua is Australia’s other singles player and will team with Ashleigh Barty in the doubles at Hobart’s Domain Tennis Centre this weekend.

The top-ranked player in a Russian squad missing the country’s 13 highest ranked players, world No.158 Victoria Kan, will play doubles.

Her partner will be Valeria Solovyeva, who Dellacqua beat at Wimbledon last year.

World No.16 Stosur admits she knows nothing about schoolgirl Kudermetova’s game.

“I guess that’s the thing about being in a team, you can pick and choose who you want to play where and on what day almost,” Stosur told reporters in Hobart on Friday.

“I’ve still got to go into the match absolutely focused and go out there and be more concerned about what I want to do … and try and pick some things up as the match goes on.”

Dellacqua’s rubber against Khromacheva will open the tie on Saturday.

Russia has won the past three ties between the countries, with Australia’s last win against the USSR back in 1983.