Sam Stosur admits she’s only heard of one member of Russia’s Fed Cup team, and doesn’t know anything about her game.

Australia will take on a team of unknowns in Hobart this weekend in the World Group first round tie.

The Russians will be headed by world No.158 Victoria Kan, despite the nation boasting six players in the top 35 including world No.5 Maria Sharapova.

They and the country’s next seven ranked players made themselves unavailable for the tie.

The Russian line-up also includes world No.650 Veronika Kudermetova and the player that rang a bell with Stosur, 259th-ranked Valeria Solovyeva.

“To be honest I only know one of the players and don’t know anything about her game,” Stosur told reporters in Hobart.

“I’ve never seen the others before.”

The Australian team’s experience against the Russians extends to Casey Dellacqua’s straight sets win over Solovyeva in the first round at Wimbledon last year, and Ashleigh Barty’s junior final win over Irina Khromacheva at the same event in 2011.

Only 18-year-old Khromacheva has competed in the Fed Cup before, playing the second singles match in Russia’s loss to Italy in last year’s final.

But Stosur said Australia, whose team also includes teenager Storm Sanders, could not afford to take their opponents lightly.

“They’ve got nothing to lose against us and I’m sure they’re going to give it everything they’ve got,” the world No.16 said.

“Even though we don’t know much about them and their rankings aren’t that high, everyone starts somewhere and you’ve got to take every match equally and as importantly.”

Stosur has spent the two weeks since her Australian Open exit training in Sydney.

She began tuning up for the Fed Cup clash by hitting with fourth-round Australian Open teammate Dellacqua at the Domain Tennis Centre on Tuesday.

Dellacqua has recovered from a shoulder niggle and will play on the weekend.