If you ask me, tomorrow will be a MUCH more interesting day. Both of the Williams sisters will be in action, as will Rafael Nadal, complete with the ongoing saga of his balky knee. You also have the super-talented Novak Djokovic, followed by blog favorite Ana Ivanovic, not to mention the Safins back-to-back.

Anyway, here’s what it’ll look like if you’re coming out to the tennis center…

Arthur Ashe —
Day: No. 1 Justine Henin vs. Ekaterina Makarova, 11 a.m.
No. 8 Tommy Robredo vs. Mardy Fish
No. 27 Vera Zvonareva vs. No. 8 Serena Williams
Night: No. 12 Venus Williams vs. No. 21 Alona Bondarenko, 7 p.m.
Janko Tipsarevic vs. No. 2 Rafael Nadal

Louis Armstrong —
Radek Stepanek vs. No. 3 Novak Djokovic, 11 a.m.
Vera Dushevina vs. No. 5 Ana Ivanovic
Tim Henman vs. Jo-Wilifried Tsonga
No. 16 Lleyton Hewitt vs. Agustin Calleri, 7 p.m.

Grandstand —
Ahsha Rolle vs. No. 15 Dinara Safina, 11 a.m.
Stanislas Wawrinka vs. No. 25 Marat Safin
Teimuraz Gabashvilli vs. Robby Ginepri
No. 3 Jelena Jankovic vs. Alize Cornet (not before 3 p.m., may be moved to Ashe)

I had a feeling there would be an upset today, and that Roddick and Kuznetsova would be tested (and Blake later on).

Well, Roddick and Kuznetsova did lose their first sets. And Donald Young, who came into the U.S. Open with only one ATP win, beat No. 13 Richard Gasquet, who advanced to the Round of 16 in his first two appearances here.

Well, he didn’t technically beat him. Gasquet withdrew. Still, maybe that counts as an upset — who thought that a player would withdraw? I’m counting it.

There hasn’t been a shocking upset so far in the U.S. Open—and no, No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez, who hadn’t won a match since Wimbledon, doesn’t count.

So will today be the day?

There are some candidates. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Andy Roddick, who are scheduled for the day session on Ashe, have been both shocked in the past few years. And “The Magician” Fabrice Santoro is difficult to play against, so James Blake should watch out. But I will take the German veteran Nicolas Kiefer over No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, who has to be distracted by allegations that he tanked a match.

So John Isner wins his second round match over a-guy-you’ve-never-heard-of and USA Network has been with him for a good part of the last set, including a tiebreak which made for great TV.

Finally, the young American wildcard gets the on-court interview, where the world will meet him, and something is wrong with the mic. Isner sounds like he’s underwater. USA interviewer Michael Barkann asks him something which— a guess?—might have been about Federer, and Isner says something that makes the crowd laugh, he smiles sheepishly— but only the people in Louis Armstrong Stadium will ever know what he said.

By the way, that title is a reference to Digital Underground, one of my all time favorite songs.

Not to take a jab at Al Trautwig of USA, but he just tried to infer that the fans may have a strong reaction to seeing Roger Federer in black…Uh, please.

I’ve been out there folks. The people here are into the fashion, but seeing Federer in all black for the first time isn’t exactly going to make them spit up a mouthful of $9 beer. I know Al’s just trying to drum up some interest for this second-round snoozer, but I don’t think the fans will flip.

For the record, Jim Courier isn’t buying it either. Good for Jim for not playing along.

In other news, it looks like Rafael Nadal isn’t unbreakable. He talked at length during today’s presser about his knee and how it hurt while he practiced. Just now on USA Ted Robinson said Nadal didn’t practice yesterday and that he came close to withdrawing from the tournament. If you saw him play today, you had to figure something was up.

I don’t know what happens here, but Nadal’s health will be a major story here the next 10 days…provided Rafa can even hang around that long.

Here’s Thursday’s schedule, which was just released:

Ashe:
Camille Pin vs. No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova, 11 a.m.
No. 16 Martina Hingis vs. Pauline Parmentier
Jose Acasuso vs. No. 5 Andy Roddick

Casey Dellacqua vs. No. 2 Maria Sharapova, 7 p.m.
Fabrice Santoro vs. No. 6 James Blake

Armstrong:
Laura Granville vs. No. 26 Sania Mirza, 11 a.m.
Donald Young vs. No. 13 Richard Gasquet
No. 7 Nadia Petrova vs. Anastasia Rodionova
No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko vs. Nicolas Kiefer

Others of interest:
No. 10 Tommy Haas vs. Philipp Petzschner, third up on the Grandstand
No. 1 Bob and Mike Bryan vs. John Isner and Oudsema, 3 p.m. on the Grandstand (may be moved to Ashe)

So I am here, finally joining Harold and Jane for my first day covering the Open this year. So far it hasn’t started all that well.

Problems so far include…
1. I picked Baghdatis to reach the semis and he lost in the first round. Bad pick, but it happened two days ago. I’m over it.
2. I hit some traffic on the way down from Westchester. Again, no big deal.
3. But what really got me going was when I realized that my parking spot is arguably about halfway between home (Tarrytown) and where I was going (the U.S. Open). In the past it had been a manageable 10-minute walk, a walk I used to enjoy after a long night inside Ashe.
4. The parking “shuttle” (I use the quotes for a reason) carried me approximately 300 yards. I then had to trek through some of Corona Park and around three sides of the tennis center. If you’ve been here, you know each side is roughly the length of a short jog, meaning yours truly was nice and sweaty by the time he arrived inside the grounds. Obviously, I’m looking forward to wondering through the park in the pitch black later. Should be a good time.
4. My dinner? Not so good. (Cold) Flank steak, (cold) Buffalo wings, and (cold) potatoes. Oh well…at least the Pepsi was flat.

But after all this, I’m very excited to finally be here. I plan on getting my first look at John Isner tonight, who will forever be known as Up-and-coming American John Isner with a victory. I hear the 6-foot-9 Isner has the graceful mobility of a post-Achilles Dan Marino, so that’s something to look forward to.

Also, we have the second-round matches for Roger Federer and Serena Williams. Most people will assume those are destined to be snoozers, but you never know. I was here two years ago where Andy Roddick was absolutely destroyed in the first round and it remains one of my more memorable experiences covering sports at The Journal News.

Serena didn’t look great the other night. Perhaps I’ll leave here with the blood of another major upset on my hands.

It sure would make getting lost later a little easier to handle.

Today was the hottest day of the week so far, and there really isn’t much shade at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. There is one oasis from the sun, however: the side of the Grandstand next to Louis Armstrong.

The upper level of Armstrong blocks the sun perfectly in that area, which is why about 80 percent of the fans on the Grandstand were on that side of the court. If you want to watch tennis, but can’t stand the heat, this is by far your best bet. Today you even got to see some promising American men — Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri and John Isner.

In just five years, the Kennedy Funding Invitional in New City has become the top tennis tournament ever held in the Lower Hudson Valley. Last month, they brought in Pete Sampras for an exhibition match, and the tournament itself had Top 100 Americans like Michael Russell, Laura Granville, Amer Delic and Paul Goldstein.

I talked to Russell in the players lounge after his match against James Blake, and he expects the tournament to be even better next year. KFI co-director Mitch Klein and his wife were Russell’s guests in the players box at Ashe yesterday, and Russell said he has been talking up the tournament to others in the locker room.

“The field will be stronger next year,” said Russell, who beat NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman of Virginia to win the $40,000 men’s tournament this year. “We might even get some guys Top 50 — hopefully I’ll be Top 50.”

Besides raising the prize money, which is obviously important to attrack the best talent, KFI organizers are hoping to build a hard court to replace the current clay court setup at Dellwood. If that happens, I can’t wait to see who signs up for next year. James Blake? Anything’s possible, especially after Sampras came the day after his HOF induction.

The top players in men’s doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan, are the top seeds here in their home Grand Slam event. And in the first round, they will face American John Isner and Scott Oudsema. Isner has been a pleasant surprise here, but he has a better chance of beating Rik De Voest tonight in a second round match than taking out the Bryans in doubles.

World Team Tennis players David Marin and Scott Lipsky didn’t make it out of the first round in the men’s doubles tournament, but Ashley Harkleroad and Justin Gimelstob did make it into the mixed doubles as a wildcard. They will likely play a first-round match tomorrow.

Harkleroad, who has been a member of the Sportimes for the last two years, is also playing women’s doubles with Vera Zvonereva.