Here's U.S. Open's Thursday (lite) schedule

As the U.S. Open winds down, the schedule grows leaner. There are only two singles matches of consequence tomorrow as the men's quarterfinals conclude. The feature match of the day session, which won't start before 2 p.m., pits Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka against Russia's Mikhail Youzhny. Those two might give the alphabet a workout, but something tells me ESPN's numbers won't be too high.

Things got a lot better Thursday night. The session opens at 7 p.m. with what amounts to an oldtimers game of doubles, that is, if you can call Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis "oldtimers." Those two are teaming up in a kind of battle of the sexes against Mats Wilander and Pat Cash.

After the warmup act ends around 8 p.m., No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal squares off against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco for the chance to move on to the semifinals to play the Wawrinka-Youzhny winner, which sounds like a free pass to his first U.S. Open final for Nadal.

On a personal note, the celebrity doubles match brings to mind the last time I covered a U.S Open from start to finish in 1994. Kournikova and Hingis were 13 years old and they faced each other in a match the USTA moved to the Grandstand Stadium, which was the No. 2 arena at the time. Hingis buried Kournikova, 6-0, 6-0, and the Russian left the court in tears followed by her mother and the rest of her entourage. That's when you knew Kournikova would make a better model than a tennis player.