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Key events
Cobolli manages to do what he couldn’t at the start the first set, holding from 40-0 up in the opening game of the second, but at 1-1 the Italian serves up two double faults, and misses a forehand and a backhand by a mile. He just can’t find any consistency. And he now trails Comesana by a set and a break, 6-3, 2-1.
A see-sawing first set on Arthur Ashe, where Keys led Korneeva 3-0, was broken back, but is now a game away, serving at 5-3. But the 31-year-old just can’t shake her 19-year-old opponent off and she falls 0-40 down, before Korneeva strikes on the second break point! Korneeva will serve to stay in the set at 4-5.
The luckless Thanasi Kokkinakis, so often cut down by injury, has withdrawn from the singles before his match against Rafael Jodar and has been replaced in the draw by Bu Yunchaokete, the 24-year-old from China, who’ll get the chance to improve on his 0-6 first-round record at grand slams.
No, because Comesana lands a 131mph first serve, his fastest of the day, and it gives him two set points at 40-15. Another stinging serve and the world No 119 secures the first set 6-3 against an out-of-sorts world No 6! Could Cobolli suffer the same first-round fate as Novak Djokovic and Arthur Fils? The Italian rips off his shirt, revealing what looks like a GPS tracking vest, as he sits on his chair waiting for Comesana to return to the court, but I’m not sure he needs any data to tell him he needs to up his game in the second set.
With the rain still pelting down, meaning play on the non-covered courts won’t begin for at least another 30 minutes, Cobolli, having worked hard to get back into the first set, promptly drops serve and is now serving to stay in it at 5-2. He’s entering the danger zone at 0-30 but regroups impressively to hold for 5-3. But can he stop Comesana from serving out the set?
Questions were asked after Keys’s Australian Open triumph last year about whether it would free the American up to win more slams, or if she’d be content settling for the one. So far it appears to be the latter, with the 31-year-old reaching only one major quarter-final since, but she simply has too much firepower for Korneeva early on and breaks for 2-0, before ripping a winner for 40-30 and then wrapping up the game. Keys leads 3-0.
Cobolli’s forehand has finally turned up for the occasion and he wears down Comesana in a rare lengthy rally at 30-40 on the Argentinian’s serve to break back for 2-3. Cue an obligatory roar. Keys, meanwhile, the runner-up in 2017 and the 2025 Australian Open champion, opens with a hold against Alina Korneeva, the 19-year-old Russian who’s making her US Open main draw debut.
Nothing’s going Cobolli’s way at the moment, as he thwacks his own leg with his racket while trying to hit the ball, as he’s taken to deuce once more on his serve. He recovers to get to his advantage, but then balloons another errant forehand well long, before finally getting on the board to reduce his deficit to 3-1.
It was also a day when Stan Wawrinka played his final grand slam match, Carlos Alcaraz made his return from injury and Aryna Sabalenka, after a shaky summer, started her title defence with a comfortable victory.
Comesana backs up the break to love for a 3-0 lead, just before Keys steps on to Arthur Ashe, in an entrance significantly more understated than Naomi Osaka’s on the same court last night. After Osaka’s jellyfish outfit at the Australian Open, Eiffel Tower-inspired dress at the French Open and Japanese kimono at Wimbledon, she completed her own calendar slam yesterday with this look. She said it was inspired by the former NBA star Allen Iverson, whom she described as a “trailblazer for shifting the way basketball players dress”. Osaka’s tennis last night was slightly less eye catching than her outfit, but she came through in two tie-break sets against Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3).
With humidity levels of 90% plus, the conditions are brutal, even with the roof on, and Comesana is already dripping so much he looks as if he’s deep into a fifth set. “I never sweated at all,” declares the Federer-like Navratilova on the commentary, “it was just my DNA.” Cobolli, meanwhile, is made to sweat as he’s pulled back from 40-0 to deuce – the Italian’s main strength, his forehand, isn’t fully firing yet – and Comesana breaks for 2-0! Having been 0-40 down in the opening game. It’s been a strange start.
The first victory of the day goes to Comesana, who wins the toss and elects to serve first. It’s an inauspicious start, though, as he drops 0-30 down and then 0-40 when he slices a backhand into the net. Comesana, sporting a retro headband, saves the first break point with a charge forward before scrambling to deuce, but it’s a scrappy opening game, to be honest, and Cobolli soon has a fourth break point … it’s surely his for the taking as he does all the hard work … but he then blasts a forehand into the net! An improvised drop shot volley from Cobolli can’t stop Comesana from moving to game point, and the Argentinian escapes with the hold for 1-0.
Here come Cobolli and Comesana, with the Louis Armstrong roof keeping out the rain and ramping up the atmosphere. While it’s been a breakout summer for Cobolli, having reached the French Open final and Wimbledon last eight, Comesana’s had a rough 2026, winning only seven matches all year. Cobolli’s flashy, shotmaking game will likely be too much for the world No 119 from Buenos Aires today, but the Italian does have a point to prove at the US Open, having never been beyond the third round.
Away from Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong, it’s been confirmed that play won’t start until at least midday New York time/5pm BST.
And what of the day three energy levels on the Sky Sports team? Martina Navratilova and Tim Henman are in good spirits (Martina especially because she’s the only Sky pundit who can boast that all of her title picks are still standing), but Laura Robson is feeling rather sweaty in the humid, heavy conditions, with rain forecast today. And right on cue … it starts raining. Gah. Play may not be starting on time on most of the courts now, though the roofs on Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong mean that Madison Keys v Alina Korneeva is guaranteed to get under way in half an hour, and Flavio Cobolli will be on court very shortly against Argentina’s Francisco Comesana.
Order of play – day session
11am start (4pm BST) unless stated
Arthur Ashe Stadium 11.30am New York/4.30pm BST
Madison Keys (USA, 22) v Alina Korneeva
Taylor Fritz (USA, 9) v Darwin Blanch (USA)
Louis Armstrong Stadium
Flavio Cobolli (It, 5) v Francisco Comesana (Arg)
Mirra Andreeva (5) v Janice Tjen (Ina)
Grandstand
Elena Rybakina (Kaz, 2) v Thea Frodin (USA)
Arthur Fery (GB) v Lorenzo Musetti (It, 13)
Iva Jovic (USA, 4) v Magdalena Frech (Pol)
Alex de Minaur (Aus, 6) v Andrea Guerrieri (It)
Stadium 17
Yulia Putintseva (Kaz) v Belinda Bencic (Sui, 12)
Daria Kasatkina (Aus) v Paula Badosa (Sp)
Rafael Jodar (Sp, 12) v Thanasi Kokkinakis (Aus)
Marcos Giron (USA) v Ignacio Buse (Per, 32)
Court 5
Filip Misolic (Aut) v Francisco Cerundolo (Arg, 24)
Anastasia Potapova (Aut, 24) v Darja Semenistaja (Lat)
Kaitlin Quevedo (Sp) v Elise Mertens (Bel, 23)
Jan Choinski (GB) v Botic van de Zandschulp (Ned)
Court 6
Gabriela Knutson (Cze) v Eva Łys (Ger)
Lucie Havlíčkova (Lze) v Anna Bondar (Hun)
Juan Manuel Cerundolo (Arg) v Arthur Gea (Fr)
Magda Linette (Pol) v Fran Jones (GB)
Court 7
Dane Sweeny (Aus) v Corentin Moutet (Fr)
Darja Vidmanova (Cze) v Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (Sp)
Arantxa Rus (Ned) v Leolia Jeanjean (Fr)
Court 10
Mattia Bellucci (It) v Zsombor Piros (Hun)
Jesper de Jong (Ned) v Francesco Passaro (It)
Nikola Bartunkova (Cze) v Mayar Sherif (Egy)
Court 11
Nishesh Basavareddy (USA) v Tristan Schoolmate (Aus)
Tatjana Maria (Ger) v Jelena Ostapenko (Lat, 30)
Fabian Marozsan (Hun) v Michael Zheng (USA)
Court 12
Maria Sakkari (Gre, 32) v Robin Montgomery (USA)
Zizou Bergs (Bel, 31) v Carlos Taberner (Sp)
Zachary Svajda (USA) v Daniel Altmaier (Ger)
Oleksandra Oliynykova (Ukr) v Reese Brantmeier (USA)
Court 13
Yulia Starodubtseva (Ukr) v Ella Seidel (Ger)
Camilo Ugo Carabelli (Arg) v Jan-Lennard Struff (Ger)
Alex Molcan (Svk) v Benjamin Bonzi (Fr)
Preamble
Hello, hello! Full disclaimer: this is my first day back after nearly three weeks on holiday and I’ve also spent the past three hours trying and completely failing to install some computer updates. So it may take a bit of time before I’m firing on all cylinders. Though Madison Keys, Flavio Cobolli and Elena Rybakina will be hoping for far smoother starts, as they get the action under way on the main courts on this third and final day of the first round, with Mirra Andreeva, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur to follow later in the day session, along with the British trio of Arthur Fery, Jan Choinski and Fran Jones. Coco Gauff, Alexander Zverev, Gael Monfils and Alexandra Eala, meanwhile, play in the evening session* as Monfils – after Stan Wawrinka’s emotional goodbye yesterday – begins his final grand slam on his 40th birthday. Allez Gael! Two send-offs in two days would be too much to handle.
* By which point I estimate there’s a 0.03% chance of me figuring out how to resolve my IT issues
#Open #Fery #Rybakina #Fritz #Keys #action #day #live #Open #Tennis
