Home Depot Center News

Wozniacki, Cibulkova and Radwanska to Make Los Angeles Debut, Wimbledon Quarterfinalist Azarenka to Make Third Tournament Appearance

CARSON, CA (Wednesday, July 15, 2009) - Meet the WTA's newest and brightest stars. They are all 20-and-under and ranked in the world's Top 15, and have kept their names in the headlines over the past year with some impressive results on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Victoria Azarenka (world-ranked No. 8), Caroline Wozniacki (No. 9), Dominika Cibulkova (No. 12) and Agnieszka Radwanska (No. 14) are the face and future of women's tennis and all will show off their games in Carson during the 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife, played Aug. 3-9 on the hard courts of The Home Depot Center on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills.

One of Southern California's most prestigious tennis traditions, the $700,000 LA Women's Tennis Championships enables tennis fans to enjoy a world-class Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 56-player singles draw that will include Manhattan Beach resident Maria Sharapova and 2008 LA Women's Tennis Championships winner Dinara Safina, the No. 1 player in the world.

The recently turned 20-year-old Azarenka of Belarus has made the biggest splash during the first six months of the season, starting the year with an impressive 23-2 record. Although she won her first career titles at Brisbane in January and Memphis in February, and beat Safina en route to the semifinals at Indian Wells, her true coming out party came two weeks later when she beat No. 1 Serena Williams to win the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla., 6-3, 6-1, spoiling the American's bid for a record sixth Key Biscayne title. Azarenka is the only player besides Venus Williams to beat Serena Williams at Key Biscayne since 2001 as Serena was seeking her third title in a row.

\"She has really, really improved,\" Serena Williams said after the final. \"I actually look forward to playing her again so I can play a little better, and obviously do better. She's going to be a really good player.\"

Serena Williams did get another shot at Azarenka at Wimbledon, where Azarenka followed up a quarterfinal finish at the French Open with another final-eight showing at Wimbledon before eventual champion Serena Williams took her out in straight sets.

Wozniacki, the WTA Tour's 2008 Newcomer of the Year, celebrated her 19th birthday in July. She is not only in the top 10 in the world, but the only Danish woman currently in the top 300 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Set to make her LA Women's Tennis Championships debut, Wozniacki has risen to prominence on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in the past year. She has won all five of her WTA Tour singles titles in that span, including tournaments at Stockholm, New Haven and the Japan Open in Tokyo in 2008, and at Ponte Vedra Beach and Eastbourne this year. A former Wimbledon junior champion, Wozniacki reached the fourth round at this year's Wimbledon. She reached the final at last week's Swedish Open and won both of her Tour doubles titles since September 2008 - at Memphis this year and at Beijing in 2008.

Cibulkova is a 20-year-old who has played in the Fed Cup for the Slovak Republic four years in a row (2005-2008) and represented her country at last year's Beijing Olympics. Like Azarenka did at Key Biscayne, it was a big win over a big-name player on one of tennis' grandest stages that had tennis fans practicing the pronunciation of her name.

At this year's French Open, Cibulkova defeated Sharapova, 6-0, 6-2, in the quarterfinals before losing to Safina in the semifinals. Beating Sharapova was sweet revenge for Cibulkova, who lost to Sharapova in the final of her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in 2008 at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fla. Cibulkova also reached last year's final in Montreal.

It's been first-after-first-after-first for Poland's Radwanska, a 20-year-old from Krakow. In 2007, Radwanska became the first Polish player in history to claim a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title when she won the Nordea Nordic Light Open. She was named the 2007 WTA Tour Newcomer of the Year at year's end. In 2008, she won three more singles titles: the Pattaya Women's Open, the Istanbul Cup, and the International Women's Open.

Radwanska played in the 2008 Olympics and represented Poland in the Fed Cup from 2006-08. At the 2008 Australian Open, Radwanska became the first Polish woman to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal during the Open Era and only the second Polish woman (the other being Jadwiga Jedrzejowska during the 1930s) ever to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal. In May, she became the first Polish female tennis player to surpass the $1 million mark in career prize money.

Radwanska teamed with her younger sister, Urszula, in winning her only Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles championship in Istanbul in 2007. Having first taken up tennis at age four and turned professional in 2005, her junior tennis career was highlighted by singles titles at Wimbledon in 2005 and the 2006 French Open.

Five of the eight Wimbledon quarterfinalists this year are in the Carson field, including Safina (the only semifinalist), Azarenka, Radwanska, Sabine Lisicki and Francesca Schiavone.

Individual tickets are on sale now for $25, or $10 per session, with the \"Buy One, Get One Free All-Week Pass\" special rate, including all 13 sessions of play. The All-Week Pass also includes an exclusive VIP \"Meet the Players Party\" on Opening Night - Monday, Aug. 3 at The Home Depot Center's Stadium Club restaurant. On Wednesday, Aug. 5, fans can help their non-profit benefit from money raised through tournament ticket sales, silent auction and more with the Tennis Cares Night. Other exciting promotions include Happy Hour Monday and Taco Tuesday, with concession stand specials; a Sports and Entertainment Career Fair; Faith and Family Night; Kid's Day; Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts Clinics; and Women in Sports Night. There will also be giveaways throughout the week. Weekend Packages are also available, which include the final five sessions of the tournament played on Friday (two sessions), Saturday (two semifinal sessions) and Sunday's finals. As always, Saturday's semifinals night features the annual Fireworks Celebration under the stars at The Home Depot Center.

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. Event Suites are also available at a special rate by calling 1-877-604-8777. Tickets are also available for purchase at The Home Depot Center Box Office (open Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on event days) and all Ticketmaster outlets, including www.Ticketmaster.com.

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 U.S. Open. This year's tournament marks the sixth year players competing in the U.S. Open Series tournaments will be vying for bonus prize money at the U.S. Open. Players competing in the \"summer season\" of tennis at the participating Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments will receive Olympus U.S. Open Series points, which will ultimately earn the series winner the opportunity to double her U.S. Open prize purse.

The tournament is currently seeking volunteers to assist with transportation, daily giveaways at the tournament and tennis clinics beginning July 29 and throughout the week of the tournament. For more information on these opportunities, please visit www.latennischamps.com and visit the \"Volunteer\" page.

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.

--www.latennischamps.com--