The Draw is out.

http://www.sonyericssonopen.com/3/en/asset.../09WTA_MDS1.pdf

Serena & Venus on the same side as usual! My good tennis friend, Harold, is convinced that the draws are "rigged".

I heard a commentator say that Serena needs to make it to the semifinals to retain the #1 ranking.

She may have to get past Zvonareva in the quarterfinals and Venus in the semifinals.

Who are they "rigged" by? Not the ticket sellers or product sellers, since Venus and Serena are the biggest names in women's tennis, especially with Maria S. out, and Venus v. Serena is the biggest match in women's tennis. Seems more like the rigging that put Serena against Justine so many times in the QFs at majors (and before that Serena against Jennifer). If this is rigging, then don't let that person pick for success.

At least if Venus continues to climb back, the matches wouldn't be before the semis.

Pivovarova (not to be confused with Pironkova) took out Bethanie Mattek today in 1st round. She is just coming back from injury and is loaded with talent, if you haven't seen her, she is GORGEOUS. Watched her at US Open qualies. LOVE.

Is Vaidisova getting her form back??? Nice win today. Dokic had a decent win. Could be an interesting tourny this year. Much more fun than IW with the sisters in the draw!

Szavay, Chakvetadze and Vaidisova have all won their matches today, against not-inconsiderable opposition (Schiavone, Hantuchova, and the elder Bondarenko respectively). An ominous sign, surely. The three Horsewomen of the Slumping Apocalypse?

Hantuchova seems to have lost weight again. She seemed to do better when she was a bit more meat on her bones. Regardless...crappy result.

I just had to post this picture of an in flight Venus.

What a great shot of Venus! Wish they had televised that match.

Here's come Vaidisova I think! That was a thrashing of Alona Bondarenko, 0 and 1, if i recall. But Alona and sis did pull off a nail biter in the doubles vs Craybas/Makarova. Will they ever match the shocker glory of their Aussie doubles crown??? Probably not, but Katerina does have one of the best backhands in the women's game.

Another slumper from Jelena, but not shocking...Dulko is a dangerous player and it was pretty close. Plus the Argentines love to play in Miami wih tons of fan support.

The Safina loss is big time good news for Serena to hold on to the #1 ranking.

The upset bug is back for sure.

Szavay upset Ivanovic
Stosur knocks out Safina
Jankovic was out yesterday

And please...lets have Nikki Vaidisova reach a semi or final before we start declaring her back. She's a hot mess still!

Venus better watch out. Groenefeld is not one to take lightly so she better make sure she is on top of her game. Serena's section is tricky too. Jie Zheng has been playing very well.

Another seed tumbles in Zvonareva. 4 of the top 8 seeds out. Both Indian Wells finalists out before the fourth round.

I'm glad to see Agi Szavay slowly getting her form back the last month or so. She doesn't have it all back yet though. Ivanovic still doesn't have a solid game, and the stats of their match -- a break fest with a lot of double faults -- leads one to believe it was sub par.

I'd guess Azarenka is going to beat Agi in the next round. I wish they weren't colliding so early. Azarenka now has an opportunity to break through to a big tournament final. The next few matches are going to say a lot about her potential. If she loses to Szavay, she's been talked up too much. And if she can't beat Dementieva or the ever-perplexing Kuz (who has beaten Vika in the past) in a semi, then she's a top 10 player but not a top contender.

Serena might have to beat all the top Chinese players -- after the Chinese players beat the Radwanskas and most of the top Czech players at a tournament a few weeks ago -- on her way to a win. She beat Peng, next faces Zheng and then could play Na Li, who just beat Zvonareva.

A lot of the upsets today weren't super surprising. Just talented or solid players getting wins over ones who have higher rankings. Even Stosur beating Safina: Stosur had been improving and coming close to some important wins as of late, while Safina seems dog tired. Likewise Dulko over Ivanovic -- Gisela has improved a lot in the last 1/2 year. Nonetheless, that's exactly the kind of match Jelena would usually win from the brink of defeat. And she didn't.

It's been far from easy for her, but Momo is still in the running.

The good news for Venus is that everyone ranked ahead of her is going to lose points for not defending what they did last year here in Miami, (unless Serena wins, that is, then she'll defend, if not, she'll lose points, too) so she can make up some ground on people ranked above her. The other good news for her is that she doesn't have jack to defend through the clay court season. She lost in the QF in Rome, and the 3rd round of the FO, and that's it. This would be a very good time for her to not only make a move up the rankings, but to get some clay-confidence going into Paris.

I'm happy the way Venus stepped it up after the first set. She started to clean up the errors and ripping the winners (and monster first serves! ) in the 2nd and 3rd set. I was nervous when her 3rd set 5-1 lead evaporated to 5-4 0-40, but she pulled through with some blistering serves. A-Rad's a tricksy player who mixes up pace and shots very well. Gimelstob and Lindsay were comparing her to Hingis, too, like other have done here on the board...she uses her guile to offset the Big Babe power, and she intelligently picked on Venus's errant forehand in the first set, and did a good job hitting behind Venus when moving her from side to side. The last point in the first set was brilliant, she drop-shotted Venus into net and volleyed an amazing lob over Venus to win the set. A wonderful cat-mouse construction by Aggie. Venus did a good job not letting the first set loss get to her in the last two sets.

And I see Serena's let a 5-1 lead evaporate against Zheng, as I'm finishing this, as now it is 6-5 for Serena...ugh. I swear, if there were a way Venus and Serena could be hypnotized into thinking they're playing semis or finals before these early round matches, none of us Williams fans would get all this heartburn!!

SERENA F*CKING WILLIAMS BABY!!! Let a 1st set lead slip, but closed it out. Let a break point slip at 4-3 and lost the second 5-7. Was down 0-2 love 40 in the third set and I guess had one of her "enough of this shyt" moments to take the third 6-3. Sloppyrena was in full force today but Fighterena prevailed at the end.

Hats off to Jie Zheng though. Their matches have been entertaining and this was Zheng's closest match with Serena. That girl can really play some great tennis when she's on. But I wish these players who decide to bring it against the Williams sisters would bring it against everyone else.

From the descriptions and the scorelines, I really wish I'd seen Venus and Serena's matches. I'm glad to find them pulling through. But it's also excellent to seem them challenged, especially with the non-Williams Tennis Association in such a pitiful state.

I'm especially happy about Aggie Radwanska giving Venus such a fight. In past matches she's gone in so intimidated against the sisters, and they've just steamrolled her. I think Aggie is a rare younger player who actually looks up to the sisters and appreciates them -- maybe more than she wants to beat them. She acutely notices all the aspects of their games that she doesn't possess and feels overwhelmed. But Aggie can be an exceptionally crafty player -- the craftiest on tour in fact. A non-brattly, more coolly cerebral Hingis, albeit with lesser results. It's been frustrating to see her so out of touch with that aspect against Venus and Serena when she was so brilliant against Sharapova at 07 USO, even if Camilla-romancing Maria isn't or wasn't quite the same caliber then.

Aggie's 08 Eastbourne final against Petrova was one of the best women's matches I've seen of the last few years, so I'm expecting some surprises from her in her career.

The tournament is shaping up somewhat strangely outside of Venus and Serena. It appears that Kuznetsova has remembered how to play tennis. Lord knows how long that will last, but she's making quick work of everyone. Wozniacki took down Elena, who suddenly doesn't seem as strong as she did at the start of the year. If the Kuz and Azarenka meet in one semi, I'm wondering if Vika can climb that mountain. Kuz has crushed her in the past. 6-0 in the third set a year ago in Miami, and in straights at the USO.

Serena 3 China 0

Serena does it again. She did about everything she could with her crappy play to give Ni La that match. Once she won the second set tiebreak I knew it would be a runaway. On court coaching still sucks in my opinion, and it is something you will NEVER see Serena or her sister use. She will have to step it up in the semis though if she faces Venus and wants to keep her #1 ranking. Good fight Serena. That first set started mighty ugly.

Okay, does Serena purposely create drama for herself? How many come-from-behind wins is she planning on having this year? She's already done it twice in this tourney and she did it twice in her first tourney of the year. Her will to win is her greatest strength and she's decided to put this attribute to the test this year.

Yeah...Serena totally was being Lazyrena in that first set. She wasn't moving her feet at all...it was pathetic. She decided to wake up down 0-5 but it was too late then.

Venus just closed out Benesova but my gosh...drama there as well. After blitzing her in the first set, Venus was 0-3, 0-40 down. She saved those break points and held for 1-3 and was able to close it out 6-4. But my goodness. Venus and these lapses of hers get on my nerves. They both make their fans really go through some up and down emotions when they play.

Vika Azarenka makes the final...thank god.

It's not that I'm even such a big Azarenka fan (my ears, my ears!), though she's impressed me with her improved point construction and ability to move the ball around this year. But I don't want Sveta in finals again until she's there to play. Not sure when that'll ever be.

Didn't see the match, but it looked messy on point tracker. Azarenka had a match point at 5-4 and lost the game with a double fault a few points later. That's not good. But she held steady enough to win after that snafu.

Neither Serena nor Venus have been spotless on their way to the final, so Azarenka isn't a sure loser going in. I just really want to see Serena and Venus vs. some new talent. You figure Serena has way more motivation to win today so she can make a date with Vika and settle scores so to speak.

That said, when Venus's game is fully firing and not misfiring, she is truly on some new mega-power next level. I saw a few games against Benesova and she was pummeling that poor little girl, who hits a pretty flat hard ball herself.

Serena can dictate how well/badly Venus plays though by her peerless defensive or defense-to-offense skills on hard courts. That aspect of her game won her the USO match. At the year-end tournament, it was Venus's more consistent and topspin-y forehand that gave her the big V.

I agree with V being at a new mega-power level. She's been averaging 5-6 aces a match in this tourney. I've never seen her have so many aces or win 50-60% on her second serve as she's done a few times this year. I don't know if her serve has improved or she has simply stopped making as many errors during her service game, but her stats has been impressive. Meanwhile, Serena can't seem to buy an ace when she used to hit them with ease.

If Serena gets through this semi, I assume it will have been the result of a hard fought match, which could mean a repeat of Wimbledon 2004. Could Azarenka come out swinging the way Sharapova did back then against a tired Serena, who killed herself to get to the final against a presumed awestruck newbie? Remember, Sharapova had to claw through a 3-setter against a veteran player in her semis. I'm really a big fan of symmetry and finding patterns.

I'm just going to put this out now. It will be annoying if Serena loses the semis and Dinara backs her way into the No. 1 spot on the tail of a 2-match, 4-set losing streak. Could you imagine the headlines: Safina Tops Women's Tennis After Second Straight Loss To A Player Outside Top Ten.

That was...flat.

90% of the match had no momentum, then every once in a while they'd play a brilliant point that only they can play.

Maybe (or probably ) I've just got it twisted because I'm for Vee, but it felt kinda preordained, what with the ranking situation (Serena needing the win so undeserving Safina wouldn't have the #1 albatross), and with a Serena-Azarenka rematch in the cards.

Unlike all the wannabes and no shows, Serena is about performing to #1 status. She's capable of smashing Azarenka. Is she injured though?

I hope it's a good battle and that Azarenka doesn't just wimp out like Dinara did at the AO.

I'm so glad Serena's staying #1. Dinara would be the most undeserving #1 since, well, Jelena Jankovic. No, the Venus/Serena match wasn't their most brilliant tennis. But some of the points they played made my jaw drop. Not a great match, but there was some great stuff in that match.

I admit, it's hard for me to keep track of all the "ova's" and "enka's" on the WTA tour these days. It's as though the Eastern European Junior Girls have swarmed the Women's Tour in search of fame and riches, but not too many of them look like they'll be around for the long haul. Few look to have the right mindset to reach the top, let alone stay there.

That said, Victoria Azarenka looks like she could be one. Her game is almost an exact replica of the Sharapova game, right down to the pitched squeals. Her test comes Saturday. Watching her in fact made me miss Maria, who would be doing a lot of cleaning up on the tour these days if she had a reliable shoulder. Sharapova is one of the few (in fact today she might be the only one currently on the tour) who can out hit Venus & Serena, and could pummel someone like Justine (which she did on a few occasions) when she's playing her best. So let's hope Azarenka can step up to THAT level - the WTA desperately needs another like that. Because watching Venus & Serena last night, I still get the feeling that when those two play like that, it's only Sharapova at her best who poses a threat to either of them.

Very much agreed.

Now that we know she'll be facing Serena, I'm intrigued. Azarenka is the only woman to have taken a set from Serena on her romp to two consecutive Slam titles. This actually irritated me at the time, because I had just pointed out on here that Serena had saved something like 18-20 set points all together en route (against Venus and Jankovic at the USO and Dulko at the AO), so it was strange to learn that she had not only dropped a set tamely 6-3 but only survived the match through a retirement. I hadn't seen that quarterfinal so I was confused - still don't know if Azarenka played that well, or if Serena was in that sleepwalking mode she gets into sometimes. (Then Serena blitzed Dementieva and Safina, making it a moot issue, and it's hardly like there should be an asterisk after anybody's tenth Slam title.) I guess we'll find out in the final.

I was vaguely pulling for Venus because I want her to start pulling her weight in the co-domination of Miami she and her sister have. Nothing since 2001 - slacker. But I also wanted Serena to keep the #1 ranking to avoid another chorus of outraged squawking and handwringing over 'unworthy' #1s after suffering through that for months already. Besides, defending her points will come in handy because Charleston is coming up, with mucho points to defend there also so it takes some pressure off - once the defunct Berlin points drop off, Safina will undoubtedly stop threatening for the top spot given her ordinary form since the AO. (Although the clay may just well rejuvenate her, since she has proven to be one of the toughest on there at the moment.) Lastly, I like the symmetry of their H2H reaching 10 apiece.

Mauresmo/Kutzie in the doubles final! Cool! I don't remember ever seeing Amelie play doubles, and don't think she has had much success with that. This is nice!

Whoa, Serena is really bandaged up. I'd been thinking that the Queen of Miami is out to soundly beat Azarenka. Show the rest of these girls how a #1 player should play.

The one interesting thing besides the bandage that made me wonder if it'd be a beatdown is that Serena seems to like Vika more than Sharapova (she likes everyone more than Maria ), or Jankovic for that matter.

The great points of Serena's semi with Venus may have been only 10% worth of the the points, but those points: Some of them were ATP level or better. When Serena was answering 120mph Venus serves with flat-out winners? Yikes. And some of the rallies were both lightning-fast and extended. Vika is learning how to play ball, but she ain't at that level.

In my book, Sharapova was never the athlete that Venus and Serena are, but at times she's been mentally tougher. Serena is the greatest WTA player mentally, for many years. But she can have down stretches in matches and even for months. When Sharapova's game breaks down, it's always seemed like injury from faulty stroke mechanics is the root.

Vika has Sharapova's hitwoman mentality on the surface, but seems a bit more prone to the yips. I think she could prove to have greater variety and better form off the ground as she continues to develop. Her strokes are already prettier than Sharapova's mechanical ones. Things like playing mixed doubles with Mirnyi in recent years show me she wants to learn. For today, I'm just hoping she doesn't fold on the big stage like so many of her generation.

Woo Hoo. Tennis on mainstream TV finally! (CBS). Azarenka sounds exactly like Shreikapova!

She looks good. Anticipates and moves well.

Dammit Serena. I'm sick of that f**king knee being an issue. Couldn't do crap today because of not being able to put weight on it. Can these two play injury free and healthy please. Serena did get off in Australia even though we'll never truly know how that match would've ended up, and Azarenka got off today one could say. But a win is a win. Serena's knee wasn't Azarenka's problem. But Ugh...that knee just can't hold up too long it seems. At least I like Azarenka. She has a very Sharapova-ish style but I can't stand Sharapova. So...if Serena had to lose...at least its to a player I like who is a talented up and comer.

Well done to Azarenka. At this point I like everything about her game besides the Sharapova Jr. whooping sounds. Her shotmaking isn't that much like Sharpy's -- not as powerful, but much more natural-looking, with an impressive ability to move the ball around. She used that to beat Safina a couple weeks ago, and it came in handy against an injured Serena today. Even the yippy serve has a lovely, fluid modern-Evert motion.

I hope that damn knee issue is just nagging for Serena and that she can play a relatively full season. At this point it is frustrating that she and Azarenka haven't played an asterisk-free match this year.

shep, if you're out there, thanks for making me rethink my view of Azarenka at the start of 09. She's been a pleasure to follow and watch.

One striking thing after the AO match, during a net exchange today, and in the ceremony, is that Serena and Azarenka plainly like each other a lot. It's refreshing. Azarenka really looks up to Serena (her remarks and demeanor in the ceremony were winning).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think Azarenka will win a major before Safina and Jankovic, and before Ivanovic wins another one. She even has a decent chance to do so at the French this year. Safina is tired. Ivanovic is misfiring. Serena may be injured, Dementieva is...Dementieva.

Azarenka first pinged my radar when she started tearing through clay tournaments (though melting down in finals) back in 07. She knows how to play on the stuff and has good footwork for it -- another area in which she's different from Sharapova. She needs to not burn out leading up to Roland Garros and as the year progresses. But her scheduling has been quite smart so far in 09. And her game is quite solid.

Congrats, Azarenka!!

Oh boy, not another Serena injury. Please Serena, don't use this as an excuse not to bring it at the FO.

two-h, I agree, it really would be nice to see a REAL Serena-Azarenka slugfest, with both players healthy. That would be a sight to see, no doubt. Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for that matchup, at this point.

I'm confident, but still cautious in my hopes for Azarenka. I might be cynical because of the generation she comes from, but I need to see a few more big-event wins from her before I'm certain she's not a card-carrying member of quickly-growing Club Chakvetadze-Paszek-Szavay-Vaidisova. I do hope she proves me wrong.

I'm sold on her already. Her overall game is much more solid than any of the players listed above.

I had hopes for Agi Szavay but her serve broke down after back problems, and then her mental game went with it. And Azarenka has a better forehand than Agi.

With Serena, it just hurts to see her dealing with injuries because she's so great. And there were years where people doubted her love of the game but she's stayed out there where others who didn't even achieve as much have come and gone. I'm guessing she'll be alright because she wasn't looking upset.

But the recurrence of the knee problem makes you think that ultimately it'll be the knee -- not reality TV, or motherhood, or coke -- that will end her competitive years. Even if that's the case, her knee is holding up more than Pova's shoulder has.

I want Serena to have more full seasons. Her defensive game in particular has been a thing of beauty these past 6-9 months.

I never thought those things would end her career, either. If anything, I thought it would more likely be Big Macs or Twinkies that would do her in.

The issue of weight is always a delicate one in WTA circles, but let's be frank. That knee injury will most likely persist unless Serena either drops some weight or eases off her enormously athletic playing style. Nobody wants to see the latter, most of all Serena. I hope she works it out with that knee, because it's not like the WTA is suffering from a surfeit of stars right now.

I disagree with the Sharapova/Azarenka comparisons. Come on, she's Dementieva 2.0! Azarenka's shrieks and grunts are much more Elena-like, quite a few decibels below Maria volume. Viktoria even suffered a touch of Dementievitis when serving for the match, but I'm hoping that was a blip, not a trend. The way VA moves, so quick and graceful, she could totally be Elena's stunt double. I thought she was sweet in her acceptance speech, so overwhelmed that she almost forgot all her English. And yes, her clear admiration and respect for Serena was nice to see.

Two-hander, you might be on to something with your prediction that VA wins a Slam before most of her top 10 peers. The two exceptions, of course, are Serena (assuming she gets healthy - fingers crossed) and Venus. But if you look at the remaining seven, each has her own big bundle of issues. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if Maria rehabs her shoulder, comes back, and wins a Slam before any of those seven.

Elena hasn't gotten as much tv time as Maria used to. But now that I think of it, you're right. I never could stand Shreikapova, and I really like Azarenka. But the "grunts (shrieks) really did sound like MS to me.
Victoria is nice looking, has good, solid tennis. I actually think she is prettiert than Kournakova, who probably got a lot of her press because of risque outfits, etc. Dementieva seems more "wholesome." Azarenka might be the middle. Loved seeing the emotion at the end. She earned it! Serena was injured, but she could very well just have won, as she has done many times with injuries.


PS. Mauresmo/Kuznetsova won the doubles!



Serena and coke?? What is the story here?

I meant Hingis. Reality TV refers to Justine Henin of all people, who is doing a reality TV show in Belgium, motherhood could be Lindsay or any number of others, and coke is a joking reference to Hingis.

The one thing with Azarenka is she has yet to really go far in a major. I think she's never gotten past the round of 16. So she'll have to break that hurdle, and in that sense only it might be premature to hail her as the true-blue next new thing.

With Serena and the knee, I don't know if it even is a weight thing. I can see how it might not help. But Serena is just naturally big and licious. It's sort of a catch 22. Serena caught so much flak for not playing enough all these years. Now she's playing a relatively full schedule while so many of her fellow competitors are totally out of the game, or at best, coming back after time away. But that full schedule is what seems to trouble the knee. I think if she schedules fewer tournaments in future years, her career can last a long time, as long as she stays fit.

I really welcome the idea of some more matches between Serena and Azarenka, because the generational difference makes for a different kind of dynamic than the "I'm gonna kill you b---h!" feeling of her jousts with Sharapova and Henin. Nothing wrong with some ill will in sport. It can be great. But I'm in the mood for some old fashioned strong-ass WTA tennis of the kind we used to get when players with talent had fewer issues with each other (see: Seles-Capriati).

turning to the doubles winners, did everyone catch this quote from Kuznetsova?

__

"The tension was huge and it was a little bit of a lottery, but I think we were very lucky in this tournament," Kuznetsova said of the match tie-breaks. "We enjoy playing together. If I was playing with someone who gave me angry faces and told me how bad I was, I'd definitely rather go home and spend time with family. But I enjoy playing with Amélie. We have fun and every time we play better.

"We want to become doubles stars, specialists. And mixed too. Somebody will become a man and we will play mixed, because we don't want to play with other partners. We have too much fun."


___

Those two make a nice partnership. I wish Kuzy could play up to her potential again, because I saw her as sort of the third Williams sister with her power and athleticism. Maybe doing fun things like playing doubles with Mauresmo will help her relax, regroup and get back to her best tennis.

Kuzzie just never had it the way she needed to between the ears. It was crazy the way she folded against Azarenka in that semifinal. Did all that to get the break late in the 3rd set only to play a horrible service game and give it back. She has the strokes and the movement, but none of that matters if you don't have it between the ears.

Sadly, if she had been able to beat Azarenka, she probably would have won the title against a hobbled Serena (even Sveta couldn't choke such a match away) and gained a ton of confidence going forward.

I hadn't seen that. Thanks airrunner. It's a bummer that Kuzzy is still folding in clutch moments. But on the other hand -- Serena's injury aside -- you pretty much called the final ahead of time. Impressive.

I was hoping Serena would prove me wrong, though. But it's not a big deal. Judging from her comments she would have been happy losing in the semis to Venus, but she really wanted to keep the No. 1 ranking. I'm glad the No. 1 means so much to her, because it means she'll play more to keep it. If I'm not mistaken, though, she has a big chunk of points as Charleston titleholder, so if she can't recover from her leg injury, Safina will still ascend to the top without even having to play that much.

This occurred to me as well. She would have become a multiple winner in Miami also, having won the title unexpectedly in 2006, which resuscitated her game and ushered in a long road of solid results to where she ended 2007 as the world number 2. From which she promptly began her current decline. Speaking of Sveta, I was wrong in an earlier post to say that Azarenka had been the only one to take a set off Serena in two Slams running, since Kuznetsova also took the first set in that quasi-controversial match which began with the roof off but ended in a covered arena. It was still Azarenka who broke Serena's streak of 20 consecutive sets won in Slams, though.

Anyhow Azarenka is a worthy winner of Miami. She has been performing strongly all year, and it took the eventual champion (and a retirement) to cut short her AO run. Having just reached the Top 10 post-Indian Wells, she has now consolidated a place for herself within it. She has some powerful groundstrokes, and although her vocal playing style is unusual, it's a consistent thing and never comes close to the throat-shredding shrieks that Sharapova sometimes belts out. It's also worth mentioning she already owns two Slam titles, albeit in mixed doubles, winning the USO with countryman Mirnyi in 2007 and the FO with Bob Bryan in 2008, which suggests some versatility in her game.


I was concerned about the Charleston points coming off, but apparently Serena is slated to play this week in Marbella (a new event), along with Jankovic. Those must be some mega appearance fees. Three days was hardly enough time to recover given the way she was gingerly hobbling throughout the final, so I won't believe she'll actually set foot on court until she does, although the clay would be more forgiving I imagine. Are we sure it's her knee flaring up again? It looked to be her quad that was heavily strapped, not her knee.

Conchita Martinez is also the tournament director at Marbella, so maybe she personally asked Jelena and Serena to be there. Certainly it's not worth nearly enough to make up for failing to defend in Charleston.