Russian Fed Cup team skipper Shamil Tarpishchev said Monday that the country’s top players will miss this year’s opening round clash with Serbia at Belgrade on February 6-7.
Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva, who all finished last year in the WTA rankings Top10, will all miss the showdown with Serbia, the skipper said.
He named Elena Vesnina, who is 23rd in the WTA rankings, Alisa Kleibanova (29th in the world), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who is 40th and Yekaterina Makarova (60th in the world) as his squad for the match in Belgrade.
“Unfortunately for us the Fed Cup opening round was placed in between the Australian Open and a series of important tournaments in the United States,” Tarpishchev said.
“Besides, Zvonareva and Dementieva were experiencing certain health problems after last season and had both asked beforehand not to be included in the squad for the clash with Serbia.”