Ex- No. 1 players Serbia keys in Fed Cup

MOSCOW, April 20 (UPI) -- Former No. 1 players Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic were given singles duties for Serbia against Russia in the Serbs' first trip to the Fed Cup semifinals.

The Serbian team travels to Moscow for a best-of-five series on an indoor red clay court this weekend. Russia, which has won four Fed Cup titles since 2004 and was second last year, has taken all three previous meetings with Serbia.

Serbia is in the World Group for just the second time.

Russia will be without its Top 10 players as world No. 2 Maria Sharapova and 10th-ranked Vera Zvonareva aren't on the roster this weekend. That leaves the singles matches fairly even.

Jankovic, who was No. 1 in the world in October 2008 and is now No. 18, will go against No. 22-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Saturday's first singles match. Ivanovic, No. 1 in August 2008 and now 15th, draws No. 27 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second match.

Sunday's schedule starts with Ivanovic going against Pavlyuchenkova while Jankovic meets Kuznetsova.

The series ends with doubles where the Russia team of Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina is seen as having an advantage over Serbs Bojana Jovanovski and Aleksandra Krunic.

The series winner moves to the Nov. 3-4 Fed Cup finals against the winner of a series between the Czech Republic and Italy. The Czech beat Russia 3-2 in the 2011 Fed Cup finals.