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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Flavio Cobolli vs Francisco Comesana — 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-4
 Flavio Cobolli✓ | 3 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
 Francisco Comesana | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Final · Tuesday, September 1, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Cobolli lost the first two sets in ninety minutes, was outscored 161-156, hit fewer winners than he conceded, and won — the first time he has come back from two sets down in his career. The roof was closed on Louis Armstrong against the rain; Ubitennis measured the humidity at 93% in a stadium with no air-conditioning, and both men were soaked from a nine-minute opening game in which Cobolli took none of four break points and was broken in the next. At 15-40 in the third game of the third set he was a point or two from finished; he won three games in a row instead and saved all eight break points Comesana earned in that set. He broke twice for 4-0 in the fourth, was broken first in the fifth and broke straight back, and took the match at 4-4 when Comesana, by then favouring his right leg, opened with a double fault. "After going two sets down I went to the bathroom and changed everything," he said. "Maybe what I was wearing was bringing me bad luck." His father and coach Stefano, watching from the box, was blunter: Flavio had switched off after the mixed doubles, and it had shown.
Flavio CobolliRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128, and the tournament's most acclimatized seed steps from one draw into another: Cobolli was on Ashe on Wednesday night contesting the mixed doubles final, and opens his singles four days later as the No. 5 seed. His summer — a Roland-Garros final, a top-six debut — makes him the popular dark horse in a bracket missing Sinner. Comesaña is the sort of opener that punishes any hangover. The winner meets Shang or Trungelliti; the section's next seed sits at the Round of 32. Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Louis Armstrong Stadium
Match length: 4:13
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen before the first serve. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the pick worth anything.
Cobolli. The fifth seed is having the season of his life — a Roland-Garros final in June, pushed Zverev to five sets there, and two weeks ago he was on Arthur Ashe contesting the mixed doubles final with Belinda Bencic — and he opens against a man ranked No. 123 whom he beat this spring. Comesaña is a trickier out than the ranking suggests: a US Open third-rounder in 2024 with an all-court scrap to his game, and their Monte-Carlo meeting cost Cobolli a 2-6 second set. But the Italian's 32-win season and the fearlessness of a first top-five summer make this his match to lose. The mixed-doubles miles mean he arrives match-sharp, not tired — the event ended Wednesday. Cobolli in four.
The case for Flavio Cobolli
80% to winCobolli's 2026 résumé towers over this matchup: a major final, a top-six ranking, 32 wins, and a head-to-head victory this very season. He has spent August playing meaningful matches on these exact courts — the mixed doubles run to Wednesday's final was a two-week acclimatization program no other seed got — and his baseline pace is a class above anything Comesaña has faced this summer.
The case for Francisco Comesana
20% to winComesaña took a set off Cobolli in April and made the third round here in 2024 as a ranking outsider — New York conditions suit his flat, aggressive returning more than his No. 123 implies. Breakout seasons like Cobolli's come with a first-time tax: the first major after your first Slam final is historically where the scoreboard gets heavy.
Both cases written 2026-08-28, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Flavio Cobolli to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A Slam finalist's season, a head-to-head win this spring, and two weeks of match-sharpness on these very courts.”
Locked 2026-08-28 03:15 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Flavio CobolliFrancisco ComesanaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Storylines
- Cobolli's Roland-Garros final in June — five sets from Zverev — made him the first Italian man in a Paris final since 1976; this is his first major since.
- He arrives with unusual court time: Cobolli and Belinda Bencic reached the US Open mixed doubles final on Wednesday night, losing to Muchová and Menšík.
- Comesaña's 2024 third round here came through qualifying-level odds; he took a set off Cobolli in their only meeting, at Monte-Carlo this spring.
Head to head
Cobolli leads 1–0 from Monte-Carlo this April, 7-5 2-6 6-3 — a match Comesaña genuinely led in. It was clay; Sunday's hard court speeds up both men's favorite patterns.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Louis Armstrong Stadium, Tuesday 1 September. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before; this one is on the board. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-08-30)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — was forecast at 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that could not be pushed back. The rain came in the morning and stopped before the final, which Ashe played with its roof open. It cleared from there: 15% overnight, 15% Monday, then dry and sunny. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.