TENNIS / DAVIS CUP FINAL : Russians Play Swedes for Pay, but Question Is How Much?

Named to play in today’s opening match in the Davis Cup final against four-time champion Sweden, Alexander Volkov was asked what the occasion means for his Russian tennis team.

Volkov, 27, is the man on the spot in a country making its first appearance in a Davis Cup final.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, the first Kremlin leader to play the game seriously, is expected in the Olympic Stadium to watch Volkov play Sweden’s Stefan Edberg. Other Russian VIPs have joined in the cheerleading, eager for a national celebration.

But Volkov, erratic on the court and enigmatic off it, wasn’t exactly exuding Russian pride.

“It doesn’t mean anything yet to reach the final,” he said at a news conference Thursday. “We haven’t received any money. When we get the money, we’ll divide it up. Then ask me what it means.

“It’s a joke, of course,” he added after a pause. “But in every joke, there’s a grain of truth.”

The truth is that, unlike the Swedes, Russia’s Davis Cup squad is a collection of talented mercenaries--the first generation of post-Soviet players to benefit fully from international prize money.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 20, the team’s rising star, has earned almost $1 million this year and is the world’s 11th-ranked player. Volkov and the third team member, Andrei Olhovskiy, have each earned about half that.

Matches will be held in a 12,000-seat indoor stadium filled with Russians who probably understand hockey better than tennis.

Sweden got the luck of the draw, which put Kafelnikov against Magnus Larsson in today’s second match. That will mean less rest for Kafelnikov before he has to team with Olhovskiy in Saturday’s doubles match against Jan Apell and Jonas Bjorkman.

The series winds up Sunday with Kafelnikov facing Edberg and Volkov playing Larsson.