Ekaterina Makarova

Second seed Shahar Peer advanced to the third round of the Hansol Korea Open on Wednesday courtesy of a straight-sets victory over Ayumi Morita.
 
The 21-year-old Israeli beat the Japanese qualifier 6-4 7-5 and will next face American Jill Craybas, who eliminated Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova 7-6 (7/1) 6-2.
Russia's Ekaterina Makarova also progressed on Wednesday with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic.
 

Two of the medallists from the 2008 Olympics Games will kick start the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Final, which takes place this weekend in Madrid.
 
Anabel Medina Garrigues, who partnered Virginia Ruano Pascual to a silver medal in the doubles in Beijing, will open up against singles bronze medallist Vera Zvonareva, in a tie where the Russians are firm favourites.

Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev insisted on Friday that his defending Fed Cup champions will not start as favourites in this weekend's final against Spain.
 
Russia, bidding for a fourth title in the annual women's team event, go into the tie stripped of the injured Maria Sharapova as well as Olympic gold and silver medal winners Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina who are unavailable.
 

Spain played down the significance of Russia's absent top seeds for this weekend's Fed Cup final and said the defending champions would still be the favourites.
 
Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina and Maria Sharapova, seeded fourth, fifth and sixth in the world, are all missing from the Russian team.
 
But they still boast world number nine Vera Zvonareva, who takes on Spain's number one Anabel Medina Garrigues in Saturday's opener, and world number seven Svetlana Kuznetsova who faces Carla Suarez in the second singles rubber.
 

Svetlana Kuznetsova

A real enigma, Kuznetsova is in many people’s eyes the most talented of the Russian players, but her confidence has been fragile in recent months. After starting the year by reaching three finals, she seemed set to take over the No 1 ranking when she reached the French Open semifinals, but then folded against Dinara Safina and hasn’t been the same player since.
 

The ITF has announced the team nominations for the 2008 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Final to be played on 13-14 September in Madrid.

Spain
Anabel Medina Garrigues
Carla Suarez-Navarro
Nuria Llagostera Vives
Virginia Ruano-Pascual
Captain: Miguel Margets Lobato
 
Russia
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Vera Zvonareva
Elena Vesnina
Ekaterina Makarova
Captain: Shamil Tarpishchev

Favourites Russia say their defence of the Fed Cup against Spain this weekend will be no easy matter, with four top players missing and a clay-court tie away from home likely to favour the hosts.
 
Russia will be without Maria Sharapova, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, silver medallist Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze for the final.
 

Russian Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev envisioned assembling a dream team for this weekend's Fed Cup final against host Spain on the red clay of Madrid. But Maria Sharapova's shoulder injury and the unavailability of French Open finalist Dinara Safina, Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva and 12th-ranked Anna Chakvetadze reduced his options.
 

Favourites Russia say their defence of the Fed Cup against Spain this weekend will be no easy matter, with four top players missing and a clay-court tie away from home likely to favour the hosts.

Russia will be without Maria Sharapova, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, silver medallist Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze for the final.
 

World number four Svetlana Kuznetsova will lead under-strength champions Russia in next week's Fed Cup final against Spain, captain Shamil Tarpishchev said on Wednesday.

Tarpishchev was resigned to fielding a second-string team after Olympic champion Elena Dementieva and Beijing silver medallist Dinara Safina ruled themselves out of the Sept. 13-14 tie in Madrid because of personal commitments.