John Jeansonne's aces & faults

ACE

No Earl spill. (The hurricane stayed away and the tennis played on.)

FAULT

Open fans must learn to love the smell of French fries in the morning (the most obvious aroma starting each day on the tennis center grounds).

ACE

Mayor David Dinkins' tennis legacy. His strict restrictions on flight patterns out of LaGuardia Airport early in the 1990s drastically cut down on the deafening noise of takeoffs, making the Open a quieter, more pleasant experience to this day.

FAULT

All the grown-ups in the "speed serve" line at the Smash Zone on the tennis center grounds - an interactive area targeted to kids.

By the numbers

6 The number of men who have won each of the four Grand Slam tournaments during his career. Rafael Nadal has a shot to be the seventh.

147 The total number of games played through seven rounds when Guillermo Vilas won the 1977 U.S. Open.

183 The total number of games in a single match played by John Isner when he defeated Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon this year, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.

Furthermore . . .

More evidence that tennis is not a sport for the wimpy: In the first set of Sergiy Stakhovsky's five-set victory over young American Ryan Harrison, Stakhovsky smashed a hard, wide service return that accidentally caught a TV cameraman square in the ribs, knocking the man out of his chair. Stakhovsky jogged over to shake the man's hand after the next point (to loud applause). Two days earlier, a Sam Querrey volley caught opponent Bradley Klahn in a very sensitive area, causing a five-minute delay.