As far as tennis is concerned, the Russians are most definitely coming.

True, Marat Safin is the only Russian survivor at Wimbledon.

But the other youngsters around him in both the men's and women's game have shown at Wimbledon that their time may not be far away.

Mikhail Youzhny, 19, caused Pat Rafter enough problems in four sets of the fourth round to prompt the Australian to briefly believe that he was on his way out.

Elena Likhovtseva was making steady progress until coming up against Venus Williams in the third round, 12 months after having pushed Lindsay Davenport all the way in a three set match.

And add to that Elena Dementieva, 19, a semi-finalist at the US Open last year and Olympic silver medallist and it is clear to see that the Russians do not lack strength in depth.

Very popular

Krasnoroutskaya believes Anna Kournikova's emergence, albeit often dominating headlines for non-tennis reasons, has been crucial in boosting the sport's popularity in Russia.

"It's really good that we have Anna, especially for women's tennis.

"She makes the beauty of the tennis. She started it. Now tennis is very popular," said Krasnoroutskaya.