PARIS -- France will try to win a second straight Davis Cup with a team featuring Sebastien Grosjean, Arnaud Clement, Nicolas Escude and Fabrice Santoro.

Captain Guy Forget announced the team Tuesday for the final against Russia on Nov. 29-Dec. 1 on clay at the Bercy indoor stadium. The substitute is Paul-Henri Mathieu, who has never played in the Davis Cup.

The Russian team is led by Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Of the French players, only Clement has reached the final of a major -- the 2001 Australian Open -- while Safin and Kafelnikov have three Grand Slam titles between them.

Mikhail Youzhny and Andrei Stolyarov are the other Russian team members.

Forget has until one hour before the Nov. 28 draw to name the final team from his five chosen players.

France is seeking its 10th Davis Cup title. It hasn't won back-to-back titles since 1931-32 and has finished runner-up five times.

The United States holds the Davis Cup record with 31 titles. Russia has never won but was runner-up in 1994 and 1995. France has never played Russia, but it had a 2-1 record against the former Soviet Union.

Forget's team is undefeated in eight rounds of Davis Cup, dating more than two years.

In last year's final, France upset an Australian team led by top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt in Melbourne.

The only difference between that French squad and the one that will face Russia is the absence of Cedric Pioline, whose place goes to Clement.

Escude beat Hewitt in the first match of last year's final. He clinched the title with a four-set victory over Wayne Arthurs in the fifth and deciding match.

Escude is 10-2 in Davis Cup play. However, he usually prefers faster surfaces and most likely will play only doubles against Russia.

Grosjean is France's top-ranked player at No. 16 in the ATP Champions Race. He was a semifinalist at the French Open, the only major played on clay, in 2001 and reached the quarters there this year. His Davis Cup record is 10-6.

Santoro is ranked 35th and has never made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam. Yet he is enormously successful against Safin, winning six of their seven matches. Santoro, however, has lost all six of his matches against Kafelnikov and may be restricted to doubles.

Clement, ranked 37th after a disappointing season, is 6-5 in Davis Cup. He played a major role in France's semifinal defeat of the United States, winning the opening match against Andy Roddick.