Flavio Cobolli’s breakthrough season continues with a dramatic first-round comeback at the US Open. The Italian defeated Argentine Francisco Comesana at Louis Armstrong Stadium in an epic five-set triumph from a two-set deficit. Cobolli eventually prevailed 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 in four hours and 14 minutes, advancing to the second round in New York.
“I feel the pressure, but … I always love to play where the pressure is high. So that means also that I love to stay on this kind of stage,” Cobolli said.
It was that pressure that gave the 24-year-old the boost he needed to rally from two sets down for the first time in his career. After struggling for much of the opening two sets, Cobolli regrouped and found greater consistency in his game, while his forehand began to cause Comesana more problems. In the fifth set, he also found himself 0-2 down before turning the match around again.
The comeback came amid a breakout season in which he continued to build belief on the sport’s biggest stages.
Cobolli first broke into the top 100 in October 2023, and in June this year he cracked into the top 10 following a maiden Grand Slam final at Roland Garros. After a first-round exit at the Australian Open, the season's second major gave Cobolli the opportunity to put into practice the lessons learned during a strong claycourt season.
The results have been part of a rapid rise for the Italian, who has now established himself among the top players in the world. A career-high ranking of world No.6 brings Cobolli to the brink of the top five, following another stellar run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, proving himself to be as adept on grass as he is on clay.
The hard courts of New York provide another test, but Cobolli has already shown this season that his game can translate beyond his favoured clay.
His comeback against Comesana came down to resilience and a change of mindset.
“After two sets down I went to the toilets and I changed everything,” he said in his on-court interview. “It's never done, you have to fight until the last point. I have a very incredible team that helped me a lot today, and maybe is the key to looking forward to the next round also."
That change in mindset was reflected in the way Cobolli fought through the fifth set, refusing to let another slow start derail his comeback. After breaking back from 0-2, he stayed in the contest before finding the decisive break late in the set.
His late surge of energy and power speaks to the current upward trend of his career and the resilience that has become a feature of his breakthrough season.
“Every time I get to play on this court, I always put my heart and core in the court. So, I’m a warrior and today, everybody [saw],” he said.
Next, Cobolli turns his attention to the second round, where he will battle Australia’s Tristan Schoolkate for a berth in the third round. But before that, a celebratory dinner at his favourite Italian restaurant in the city, Via Della Pace, is a must.