TENNIS in DEPTH.

The Russian Tennis Federation has announced that Svetlana Kuznetsova will be brought in to Russia’s Fed Cup by BNP Paribas team for this weekend’s World Group first round tie against Serbia.

Kuznetsova is expected to join Elisa Kleybanova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Vera Dushevina in the Russian line-up, with Ekaterina Makarova making way.

Kuznetsova, the world No. 4, is Russia’s highest ranked player. She has won 11 career singles titles, including Grand Slam victories at the US Open and Roland Garros, and 14 doubles titles.

In Fed Cup play, Kuznetsova has played on three winning Russian teams. Since making her debut in 2004, she has accumulated a 16-5 winning record.

Russia’s tie against Serbia will be played on an indoor hard court in Belgrade. The arena has a capacity of nearly 20,000 and is expected to generate a fantastic atmosphere.

Making its World Group debut, Serbia has nominated its strongest available team. Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic – both former world No. 1s – will line-up alongside Ana Jovanovic and Bojana Jovanovski.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Jankovic. “It’s going to be an amazing event. We’re playing for the second time in Serbia. We already experienced it once when we played against Japan. We played in Belgrade and just the support of the crowd was really unbelievable. This feeling you can’t really explain.”

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