WTA Tour Event to be Help July 19 - 25 at The Home Depot Center in Carson
CARSON, CA (April 22, 2004) – Defending champion Kim Clijsters, Serena and Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Chanda Rubin have committed to the JPMorgan Chase Open, July 19-25, at The Home Depot Center in Carson. All but Rubin have been ranked No. 1 in the world.
“The JPMorgan Chase Open is truly an annual highlight for Southern California tennis fans,” said Bill Peterson, tournament director and managing director, The Home Depot Center. “With early commitments from three recent champions, and five players who have been ranked number one in the world, we clearly will have the strongest field ever for our tournament whose national prominence and stature has been elevated with its inclusion in the US Open Series. With physical enhancements to The Home Depot Center’s tennis facilities already underway as well as our commitment to providing the most exciting atmosphere and presentation in the tournament’s history, we are confident that this year’s JPMorgan Chase Open will be one the best tennis experiences ever in southern California.”
With her title at last year’s JPMorgan Chase Open over Davenport, Clijsters captured the WTA Tour’s No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career on The Home Depot Center’s center court; one of a career-high nine singles titles for Clijsters in 2003. She owns 21 career singles titles, including the Season-Ending Championships the last two years, and Paris and Antwerp this year.
Serena Williams owns six Grand Slams singles titles, including Wimbledon the last two years. She also has won the U.S. Open twice and the Australian Open and Roland Garros once each. When she won the Australian Open in 2003, she became only the fifth woman to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles at the same time. She was ranked No. 1 from July 8, 2002-Aug. 10, 2003. She has 24 career singles titles, including Los Angeles in 1999 and 2000.
Venus Williams won back-to-back titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001. She was a Grand Slam singles finalist on six other occasions. She was ranked No. 1 three times in 2002, when she won a career-high seven singles titles. She notched her 30th career singles title in April this year at Charleston.
Davenport won the U.S. Open in 1998, Wimbledon in 1999 and the Australian Open in 2000. She was ranked No. 1 five times from 1998-2002. Davenport has captured 39 career singles titles, including seven each in 1999 and 2001. She was the Los Angeles champion in 1996, 1998 and 2001.
Capriati owns three Grand Slam titles, winning the Australian Open in 2001 and 2002 and Roland Garros in 2001. Her resume includes 14 WTA Tour career singles titles, a career-high three coming in 2001. She won the singles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She was ranked No. 1 on four occasions in 2001 and 2002.
Rubin is a three-time quarterfinalist at Roland Garros and she reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in 1996. She owns seven WTA Tour career singles titles, including Los Angeles in 2002. She won two titles each in 2002 and 2003.
The USTA this week announced that the JPMorgan Chase Open will be a part of the US Open Series, a historic breakthrough for the sport that links 10 summer hard-court tournaments to the US Open. For the first time, 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 WTA tournaments will receive US Open Series points which will ultimately earn the winner of the series the opportunity to double her US Open prize money.
About the JPMorgan Chase Open
The JPMorgan Chase Open, at 34 years old one of the most historic events in women’s tennis, is being held for the second consecutive year at The Home Depot Center. The WTA Tour Tier II event offers prize money of $585,000 to the 48-player singles and 16-team doubles draws. The distinguished tournament champions’ list includes Clijsters, Serena Williams, Davenport, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King.
About The Home Depot Center
The Home Depot Center is Southern California’s new 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 Dominguez Hills in Carson, California, The Home Depot Center features a 13,000 seat stadium for tennis, a 27,000 seat stadium for soccer, athletic competitions and outdoor concerts, a 20,000 seat facility for track & field, the ADT Event Center, a 3500-seat indoor velodrome (opening summer 2004) and other facilities for softball, baseball, beach volleyball, basketball and other sports. Named an Official U.S. Olympic Training Site, The Home Depot Center is also the national team training headquarters for the U.S. Soccer Federation. The “complex,” which is also the home of the nationally-recognized Athletes Performance training center for elite and professional athletes has additionally been designated “official” training site for USA Cycling, United States Track & Field, the USTA and the AVP.
About JPMorgan Chase
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $801 billion and operations in more than 50 countries. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and businesses, financial transaction processing, investment management, private banking and private equity. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase is headquartered in New York and serves more than 30 million consumers nationwide, and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients. Information about JPMorgan Chase is available on the Internet at www.jpmorganchase.com.