With Andy Roddick sidelined by a wrist injury, James Blake and Mardy Fish will lead an inexperienced U.S. team against host Croatia in the first round of the Davis Cup on Feb. 7-9.

At 23, Blake is the veteran of the group. Fish and Taylor Dent are both 21, and Robby Ginepri is 20; that trio has played a combined total of one Davis Cup match -- in doubles.

"A changing of the guard with our Davis Cup team is complete," nonplaying captain Patrick McEnroe said Tuesday. "This is an opportunity for our guys to step up, and it will make us a better team down the road. When Andy comes back, we will be stronger."

Roddick has severe tendinitis in his right wrist, which he landed on during his 4-hour, 59-minute Australian Open quarterfinal victory over Younes El Aynaoui. Doctors told him not to pick up a racket for at least a couple of weeks.

"He's very disappointed, but it's something he needs to take care of now, or it could be an ongoing problem for a long time," McEnroe said. "He's part of American tennis for now and the future. He just wasn't going to be able to be ready to play next weekend."

Blake and Roddick were a combined 12-0 in Davis Cup heading into last year's semifinal against France. But both Americans lost their opening singles matches and their team lost 3-2.

Fish teamed with Blake to beat Slovakia in doubles last February in the competition's first round. That's the sum total of Davis Cup experience for Fish, Dent and Ginepri.

McEnroe indicated he's leaning toward using Blake (career Davis Cup records of 4-1 in singles, 3-0 in doubles) and Fish in singles and doubles against Croatia.

The United States has won the Davis Cup a record 31 times, but the last title came in 1995.

Croatia's squad for the best-of-five series indoors at Zagreb will be 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, Mario Ancic, Ivan Ljubicic and Lovro Zovko.

Ivanisevic has been trying to get over shoulder problems.

"He could maybe get himself ready to play either singles or doubles. We're preparing for that," McEnroe said.

"We've got a tough match on our hands no matter what _ if Goran plays or not. It certainly didn't look like he was 100 percent healthy, from what I saw."