August 22 - 24 - Call New York the Big Racket for the next two weeks while the U.S. Open takes over the city. Thursday's pre-tournament event was the International Taste of Tennis charity benefit, in which renowned tennis players and celebrities pair up with acclaimed chefs to cook and serve their favorite dishes. We had an etiquette crisis wondering whether to tip our server Andre Agassi.

On Friday, Tennis magazine's Grand Slam event steamed into Grand Central Station's Vanderbilt Hall, with celebrity tennis matches and other net-related fun. Along with legend Chris Evert, now publisher of Tennis mag, Martina Navratilova, news anchor Stone Phillips and singer Rufus Wainwright smacked balls around the indoor court. Uptown at posh Harry Winston, Serena Williams was presented with a nine-carat diamond and platinum tennis bracelet. During 1987's U.S. Open, Chris Evert's Winston diamond bracelet flew off her wrist, hence the birth of the term "tennis bracelet".

Tennis bigs also made appearances at Niketown, the Puma store, and at the Open's Arthur Ashe Kids Day, where MTV personalities and hot young performers like Mario and BB Mak joined tennis stars like James Blake, Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova, Alexandra Stevenson and Andre Agassi in entertaining the young ones. We had tennis elbow before the matches had even begun.