The Home Depot Center to Host $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event May 28 - June 3

CARSON, Calif., May 16, 2007 - The USTA today announced that Compton-born Angela Haynes will headline the competitors at The Home Depot Center USTA Women's Challenger, a $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event, at The Home Depot Center Monday, May 28 - Sunday, June 3.

In its inaugural appearance on the USTA Pro Circuit, The Home Depot Center USTA Women's Challenger is the ninth of 20 USTA Pro Circuit women's challengers scheduled for the 2007 season. This women's challenger is combined with the Countrywide Classic USTA Men's Challenger, also slated for May 28 - June 3 at The Home Depot Center. The prize purse for this tournament is $50,000, and most importantly, players will earn valuable points on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Currently No. 221, Haynes is the second-highest ranked of the 24 women who received direct acceptance into the 32-player main draw. Thirty-two players will compete in the singles qualifying tournament May 27 - 28, for eight other berths. Doubles qualifying will be on Monday, May 28.

Ranked as high as No. 95 (Aug. 22, 2005), Haynes owns three professional titles, including two doubles championships. Born in Compton, Calif. - neighbor to Carson - Haynes trains at the USTA Player Development Center, which is headquartered at The Home Depot Center in Carson. Now an Irvine, Calif. resident, Haynes is in her second season with the Delaware Smash of the World Team Tennis (WTT) league. She was the 2006 WTT Most Valuable Female Player.

The top-ranked player in the main draw is No. 189 Rosana de los Rios of Paraguay. Once ranked as high as No. 51 (Nov. 12, 2001), de los Rios is working her way back up the rankings after taking some time off to raise her 10-year old daughter, Ana Paula Neffa-de los Rios. She won her first professional title at last year's $50,000 Challenger event in San Diego. In 2002, she was a doubles runner-up with 2007 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in Madrid. De los Rios has represented her country in Fed Cup play in 21 ties, which includes appearances in 1997, 2000 and 2007. She has won nine-straight singles matches. De los Rios represented Paraguay at 1992 Barcelona and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. She became the first Paraguayan to win an Olympic singles match when she defeated Kveta Hrdlickova in Sydney in 2000.

Other notable women competing in the main draw this month at the Challenger, who also train with the USTA High Performance program, are Alexa Glatch (Newport Beach, Calif.), a Junior US Open Finalist in 2005; Lauren Albanese (Coral Springs, Fla.), a Junior US Open semifinalist in 2006 and USTA Girls' 18s champion; Julia Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.), the No. 5 internationally-ranked junior in the world; Ashley Weinhold (Spicewood, Texas), who won the women's $10,000 event in Southlake, Texas in 2006; and Amber Liu (La Mesa, Calif.), the 2003 and 2004 Women's NCAA Champion while at Stanford. The complete women's and men's entry list is available online at www.usta.com/carsonchallenger.

The 2007 Men's and Women's Challenger event is a partnership between the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA), USTA, Countrywide Classic and AEG, owners and operators of The Home Depot Center. This event marks the first time the SCTA, USTA and AEG have jointly promoted a co-ed Pro Circuit tournament. The Challenger tournament is free to the public Monday, May 28 - Sunday, June 3. On Sunday, June 3, tickets to the finals are $5.00. For more information, please visit www.usta.com/carsonchallenger.

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 Hills (CSUDH) in Carson, California. The Home Depot Center features an 8,000-seat tennis stadium, a 27,000-seat stadium for soccer, rugby and other athletic competitions and outdoor concerts, a 10,000-seat facility for track & field and lacrosse, the ADT Event Center (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 Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA, and Major League Lacrosse's (MLL) Los Angeles Riptide. Named an Official U.S. Olympic Training Site, The Home Depot Center is also home of the United States Tennis Association's (USTA) High Performance Training Center and is 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 Athletes' Performance's 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 and USA Track & Field. For more information, please visit www.homedepotcenter.com.

ABOUT THE USTA PRO CIRCUIT:

With 95 tournaments throughout the country and prize money ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the USTA Pro Circuit is the pathway to the US Open and tour-level competition for aspiring tennis players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. Last year, 1,089 men and women from 74 countries competed on the USTA Pro Circuit for approximately $3.2 million in prize money and valuable ATP and WTA Tour ranking points. Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Justine Henin, Nicole Vaidisova, Andy Murray and David Nalbandian are among today's top stars who began their careers on the USTA Pro Circuit. The USTA Pro Circuit is world-class tennis administered on the local level and played on local tennis courts as part of the fabric of communities nationwide - an opportunity for current and new fans to experience the excitement and intensity of the professional game in their neighborhood.

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For more information contact:

Tim Curry, Senior Manager, Publicity, Professional Tennis, USTA
(914) 696-7077, curry@usta.com

Adrian Hamblin, Publicity Assistant, Professional Tennis, USTA
(914) 697-2291, hamblin@usta.com

Alison Groendal, The Home Depot Center
(310) 630-2032, agroendal@homedepotcenter.com