Intro:

Germany and Russia prepare for their Fed Cup semi-final.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russian player

"I always like clay, to play on clay, and I think that my form is getting better. I feel good here and during the practice my tennis was coming back a little bit since I didn't have a really good start to this year. But I'm working really hard and it's coming so hopefully I can show some good tennis."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russian player

"I feel good. I haven't played many matches on clay but on hard (courts) I have started to play much better than at the start of this season so I am looking forward to the tie, especially playing back home, it's nice."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russian player (Q: Are you surprised by the German team selection?)

"Yes it's strange but I guess they have their reasons not to put them (Kerber and Petkova) in them (the singles ties) All four of them are very tough. They all play well and it's going to be difficult anyway."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Elena Vesina, Russian player

"We're feeling really good right now. We have been practicing for the whole week together and we're just enjoying our time with the team because it's always special to play Fed Cup for your country. It's going to be a very difficult match for both teams so we're looking forward to the match and we'll see."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Barbara Rittner, Germany captain (on her decision to select Kerber and Petkovic for the doubles rubber only)

"Well obviously I have the number one and two players had been playing in Charleston so they have pretty tough jet lag and they only came here on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday (tuesday night) So it's always tough. They have had long weeks in the US, successful weeks, and I had two players who are fresh now, they were here from the beginning from Sunday onwards. They had good practice sessions so yes, we have a strong team and I have all my trust in all the four players and I had to choose so I start on Saturday with these two players (Lisicki and Goerges)

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sabine Lisicki, Germany player (are you surprised to be playing the singles ties)

"I think that's what makes us strong because we have four amazing singles players and we can swap however we want. So we had two girls arriving very late from the States and that's exactly what this is for. So it's great to have the opportunity to be out there again and we're looking forward to it."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Andrea Petkovic, Germany player (on supporting her team from the sidelines)

"Well it's going to be strange I guess, especially after the last two years where we (Petkovic and Kerber) were always kind of in charge. We won it but we also lost it for the team. So it's going to be different but then again, it makes such a huge difference the energy that you get from the outside and we couldn't have pulled through some of the matches without the girls from outside so we're going to try and give that back as much as possible and obviously scream our lungs out and cheer and jump up and down and hopefully we can help them a little bit and give a little energy from outside as well.