The U.S. Davis Cup team's Andy Roddick (right) speaks to teammate, James Blake during the draw for the Davis Cup tie between the Czech Republic and the U.S. in the Ostrava Town Hall, yesterday. - Reuters

LONDON (AP):

SEVEN OF the world's top 10 players will be in action today for the first round of the Davis Cup.

The notable exception is No. 1 Roger Federer, who is sitting out Switzerland's World Group match against Spain.

Second-ranked Rafael Nadal, however, will open for Spain against Marco Chiudinelli on carpet in Geneva.

The other top-10 players competing are Andy Roddick and James Blake of the United States, Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic of Croatia, and Tommy Haas of Germany.

Federer, who won the Australian Open last month for his 10th Grand Slam title, is skipping the matches to concentrate on keeping his No. 1 ranking.

Without Federer, Switzerland will have Stanislas Wawrinka playing David Ferrer today in the second singles match of the best-of-five series.

Yves Allegro and Wawrinka will take on Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco in tomorrow's doubles. The reverse singles are Sunday, but captains can still make changes to their line-ups.

The other first-round matches are: Chile vs Russia; France vs Romania; Germany vs Croatia; Belgium vs Australia; Czech Republic vs United States; Belarus vs Sweden; and Austria vs Argentina.

Roddick, who lost to Federer in the semi-finals at the Australian Open, is set to face Ivo Minar on clay in Ostrava, Czech Republic, while Blake takes on Tomas Berdych.

"It should be tough, but I feel like I'm ready," Roddick said.

Doubles team

Pavel Vizner and Lukas Dlouhy will face the top-ranked doubles team of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan tomorrow.

The only two top 10 players to face each other today will be Haas and Ancic, who open the series between Germany and Croatia on hard courts in Krefeld. Ljubicic will then play Benjamin Becker.

Ljubicic and Ancic are expected to team up to face Alexander Waske and Michael Kohlmann in doubles.

Gonzalez, the fifth-ranked Chilean who reached the Australian Open final, will play Igor Andreev of Russia on clay in La Serena, Chile, after Marat Safin faces Nicolas Massu.

The defending champion Russians will then send Igor Kunitsyn and Teimuraz Gabashvili to face Gonzalez and Massu in doubles.

Leyton Hewitt, a former top-ranked player, will face Kristof Vliegen in the opening match when Australia visit Belgium on clay in Liege.

Olivier Rochus will take on Chris Guccione in the other singles match, while Dick Norman and Christophe Rochus face Hewitt and Paul Hanley in tomorrow's doubles.

Stefan Koubek of Austria will face Jose Acasuso of Argentina in their opening match on carpet in Linz, while Juergen Melzer follows by playing Guillermo Canas.

Melzer and Julian Knowle are expected to take on Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto in the doubles match.

"Our chances are good against Argentina ... but there is no way we will underestimate this opponent," Austria captain Gilbert Schaller said.