Aces & Faults at the U.S. Open

Aces

& FaultsACE. Night tennis at the Open. But only to a point -- say, midnight.

LET.The 2:26 a.m. finish of the Philipp Kohlschreiber-John Isner match Monday morning. It tied the Open record for a late finish (Mats Wilander over Mikael Pernfors in the 1993 second round).

FAULT.The decision to start Kohlschreiber-Isner at Ashe Stadium at 11:05 p.m., after an hour-plus rain delay pushed back the finish of the night session's first match between Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova.

ACE. Any future adjustment by Open officials to move the second night-session match -- if the first is still going past 9:30 -- to Louis Armstrong Stadium. Yes, there are 13,000 fewer seats, but at that hour, there shouldn't be a problem accommodating the hard-core fans still on site.

ACE.Tuesday night, with the threat of rain, the first night match at Ashe, featuring the Williams sisters in doubles, immediately was moved to Armstrong, giving the stage to Andy Murray-Milos Raonic at a reasonable hour.

By the

Numbers4:33a.m. The latest finish of a Grand Slam tournament match, Lleyton Hewitt vs. Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open.

48 Games played in the Kohlschreiber-Isner match.

183 minutes to complete that match, which works out to fewer than four minutes per game -- a quick five-set match. If it had been anywhere as long as the five-setter that former champion Lleyton Hewitt played in the previous round -- 4 hours, 35 minutes -- Kohlschreiber-Isner could have been on court until 3:30 in the morning.

FurthermoreMost popular courts among Open fans: 1) Louis Armstrong. 2) Grandstand. 3) Newly completed Court 17. 4) Practice courts. 5) Food court.