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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Flavio Cobollivs
Francisco Comesana
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
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My pick: Flavio Cobolli to advance · locked 2026-08-28 03:15 UTCPrediction
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, quoted to a decimal because false precision is funnier — and tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
Tale of the tape
Flavio CobolliFrancisco ComesanaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-27.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
The briefing
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.
Watch: Opening-round coverage starts Sunday at 11 a.m. ET across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, including a whip-around channel for the early rounds. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned — the US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before, so day-one courts land the night of 29 August. A top-five seed fresh off the mixed final profiles for Ashe or Armstrong. (US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-27)
Weather: The opening window looks kind: mostly sunny and 85–86°F Sunday and Monday, with thunderstorm chances only creeping in on Tuesday. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs if the sky turns; the field courts wait it out. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-27)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
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.
Flavio CobolliFrancisco ComesanaRound of 128
Flavio CobolliFrancisco ComesanaRound of 64