Home Depot Center News

\"Buy One, Get One Free\" All-Week Passes on Sale Now for the August Tournament

CARSON, CA (Tuesday, June 30, 2009) - Eleven of the Top 15 players in the world are part of one of the strongest Carson tennis lineups ever as Russia's Vera Zvonareva (No. 7), Belarus' Victoria Azarenka (No. 8), Russia's Nadia Petrova (No. 10) and Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova (No. 13) have added their names to the early entry list for one of Southern California's most prestigious summer tennis traditions, the 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife.

The $700,000 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premier event will be played Aug. 3-9 on the hard courts of The Home Depot Center on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills. Fans may now purchase a limited-time-only \"Buy One, Get One Free\" All-Session pass, which includes all 13 sessions of play, plus passes to the outer grounds, available now at www.latennischamps.com .

The talented quartet join Sony Ericsson WTA Tour superstar Maria Sharapova (Russia) and defending champion and World No. 1 Dinara Safina (Russia) in the tournament.

Other Top 15 players in the 56-player singles field will be current No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia), No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark), No. 11 Marion Bartoli (France), No. 12 Ana Ivanovic (Serbia), No. 14 Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) and No. 15 Flavia Pennetta (Italy).

Further proof of the strength of this year's field was seen Monday at Wimbledon as five who are set to play at Carson advanced to the quarterfinals at the All England Club, including Safina, Azarenka, Radwanska, Sabine Lisicki and Francesca Schiavone. Safina advanced to the semifinals.

Also scheduled to play is former Carson runner-up No. 32 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Ivanovic and Hantuchova have had successful runs in recent editions of the tournament, being played for the 39th consecutive year in Southern California, with Ivanovic winning the title in 2007 and Hantuchova the runner-up in 2005.

Zvonareva has been hobbled by injuries recently, forced to retire before her third-round encounter Friday at Wimbledon because of an ankle injury. Zvonareva missed two months of the season after damaging ankle ligaments in a match in Charleston, S.C. The injury forced her to miss the French Open.

In March, Zvonareva received a major boost in winning the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif., defeating that event's defending champion, Ivanovic, in the final. She also teamed with Azarenka to win the doubles title in the same event.

Azarenka calls Scottsdale, Ariz. home as she moved to Arizona from Minsk, Belarus in order to be closer to the friends of her mother, National Hockey League goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and his wife.

Azarenka, who will turn 20 days before the LA Women's Tennis Championships, has won three singles titles this season (Brisbane, Memphis, and Key Biscayne) and has two career Grand Slam mixed doubles titles - the 2007 U.S. Open with Max Mirnyi and the 2008 French Open with Bob Bryan.

Petrova earned her highest world ranking of No. 3 in 2006. She has also reached the French Open semifinals twice (2003 and 2005).

Cibulkova enjoyed a tremendous French Open run this year, advancing to the semifinals before losing to Safina. In the quarterfinals, she defeated Sharapova, 6-0, 6-2. At Wimbledon, Cibulkova was seeded 14th and reached the third round.

About the Tournament

The LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife, in its 39th year, is one of the most historic events in women's tennis and is being held for the sixth consecutive year at The Home Depot Center. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premier event offers prize money of $700,000 to the 56-player singles and 16-team doubles draws. The distinguished tournament champions list includes Dinara Safina, Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, all of whom have also been ranked No. 1 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour during their careers.

The LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife is part of the prestigious Olympus US Open Series, which links nine summer hard-court tournaments to the famed US Open. This year's tournament marks the sixth year players competing in the US Open Series tournaments will be vying for bonus prize money at the US Open. Players competing in the \"summer season\" of tennis at the participating Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments will receive Olympus US Open Series points, which will ultimately earn the series winner the opportunity to double her US Open prize purse.

The LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife offers a variety of ticket packages on sale now. All event ticket packages, including all 13 sessions of play, including the outer grounds pass, are available at a special \"Buy One, Get One Free\" rate now. In addition, weekend packages which include the final five sessions of the tournament played on Friday (two sessions), Saturday (two semi-final sessions) and the finals on Sunday start at only $150.00. Ticket discounts, great benefits, and the best seat locations are offered with each ticket plan. For more information on all ticket packages, VIP Hospitality Suites and sponsorship/exhibit opportunities, call 1-877-AEG-TICKETS (1-877-234-8425) or visit www.latennischamps.com .

In addition to special ticket discounts, the tournament is seeking volunteers to assist with transportation throughout the week of the tournament, as well ball kids. Try-outs for ball kids is on July 11 at The Home Depot Center. For more information on either of these opportunities, please visit www.latennischamps.com and visit the \"Ball Kids & Volunteer\" page.

About the Players

Vera Zvonareva, the No. 7 ranked player in the world, has won nine WTA Tour singles titles, four WTA Tour doubles titles and two ITF Women's Circuit singles titles. She advanced to the quarterfinals at the French Open in 2003 after defeating Venus Williams in the fourth round. Of her nine singles titles, two have been at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tenn. She is a Grand Slam doubles champion (U.S. Open in 2006 with Nathalie Dechy) and won the Olympic bronze medal for Russia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

No. 8 Victoria Azarenka was a semifinalist at the BNP Paribas Open, defeating World No. 2 Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals before losing to her doubles partner, Vera Zvonareva. At the Sony Ericsson Open, Azarenka beat Serena Williams in the final 6-3, 6-1 for her first Tier I title. In 2005, Azarenka won the Australian Open and U.S. Open as a junior and was named the ITF Junior Girls World Champion for that year, the first player from Belarus to do that.

Nadia Petrova, ranked No. 10 in the world, has won nine WTA titles and has been a part of Russia's Fed Cup team since 2000. As a junior, Petrova won the 1998 French Open, beating Jelena Dokić in the final. She has won 12 doubles titles, eight of them with Meghann Shaughnessy including the year-ending WTA Tour Championships in 2004.

No. 13 Dominika Cibullkova has played in the Fed Cup for the Slovak Republic four years in a row (2005-2008). She turned 20 in May made her Grand Slam debut at the 2007 French Open where she qualified and then made the third round.

About The Home Depot Center

The Home Depot Center is southern California's home of world-class competition and training facilities for amateur, Olympic, collegiate and professional athletes. The $150 million privately financed facility was developed and is operated by AEG on a 125-acre site on the campus of California State University, Dominguez (CSUDH) Hills in Carson, California. The Home Depot Center features a 13,000-seat tennis stadium, a 27,000-seat stadium for soccer, rugby, lacrosse and other athletic competitions and outdoor concerts, a 10,000-seat facility for track & field, The Home Depot Center Velodrome (a 2,450-seat indoor velodrome for cycling) and other facilities for softball, baseball, beach volleyball, basketball and other sports. The Home Depot Center is home to three professional sports teams - Major League Soccer's 2005 MLS and U.S. Open Cup Champion Los Angeles Galaxy; Club Deportivo (CD) Chivas USA; and Women's Professional Soccer's (WPS) Los Angeles Sol. Named an Official U.S. Olympic Training Site, The Home Depot Center is also home of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) USA Tennis High Performance Training Center as well as the national team training headquarters for the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF). The David Beckham Academy for youth soccer, Andre Agassi's Safe Passage All-Stars at-risk youth tennis program and the nationally recognized Athletes' Performance training center for elite and professional athletes are all based at The Home Depot Center. The Home Depot Center has additionally been designated official training sites for USA Cycling, USA Track & Field and the USTA.

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