Flavio Cobolli’s new approach fuels rally to survive US Open upset bid…
The buzz — a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium — was palpable for the first match Tuesday, with play delayed on the outdoors courts due to rain and roars echoing throughout as Flavio Cobolli began to stage his comeback from down two units.
He entered the U.S. Open seeded No. 5, cracking into the top 10 for the first time after a run to the French Open final earlier this yr. He practically tumbled out of the tournament in the first round, though, before stunningly erasing his deficit against unseeded Francisco Comesana to win 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
In the aftermath of his win, Cobolli was requested about being somebody that “people want to pay to see,” and he joked that “people pay for everything now.”
Flavio Cobolli of Italy celebrates after profitable his first-round match against Argentina’s Francisco Comesana at the U.S. Open on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. REUTERS
But the remainder of his reply, after one among his greatest wins and the first two-set comeback of his profession, illustrated the challenge — and adjustment — for one among the sport’s fast-rising stars.
“I feel the pressure, but is something that I will want to use as a friend, you know,” Cobolli said.
“I always love to play the place the stress is high. … So one thing that I’m not regular to do, however I’m attempting to be more comfy once I do. So now I really feel good once I’m on courtroom like this, when the courtroom is full, when the crowd is for my opponent.
“So I’m trying to be more calm as possible. I don’t know if you guys, you can see that I’m very calm, but I’m trying to do something different from the past.”
Cobolli has shortly turn into one among the faces of the males’s singles draw, particularly in a discipline lacking Jannik Sinner and without Novak Djokovic after he was eradicated. Before the first round, Cobolli and Belinda Bencic superior to the final of the blended doubles tournament before falling, and so they have been the duo who knocked out the star-studded pairing of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz. Cobolli was a featured identify in the Stars of the Open exhibitions last week, too.
Flavio Cobolli of Italy in action against Francisco Comesana of Argentina. CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA/Shutterstock
He’s still just 24 years outdated, still searching for his first Grand Slam title. He’s still adjusting to life as one among the stars. So it was becoming, in a approach, that he in the end delivered maybe the signature comeback of the tournament up to now.
“It was really tough to start the match,” Cobolli said, “especially because we played on Armstrong that is very big and very loud, like everybody saw. But I’m still happy with the performance”
Elena Rybakina, who can take over as No. 1 in the women’s singles rankings with a run to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, opened up about the injury she sustained at the Cincinnati Open after defeating Thea Frodin in straight units Tuesday — and revealed that she didn’t know if she’d even give you the chance to play in Queens.
“[The physio in Cincinnati] said the Achilles tendon was not broken, so that was kind of a good thing, but of course I still had the pain,” Rybakina said. “I’m pretty happy, of course, that I’m playing right now, and we were taking day by day. I was not playing for the full week, so seven days, no tennis, and basically not too much gym I could do movement-wise.”
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